This Road Trip Called Life

This past Saturday, as I cruised down I-95-South, I was reminded of life and how the journey we take together, or apart, leads us to our various destinations. The journeys of our lives have many detours, exits, merges and rest-stops, and we will eventually get to where we're going or end up in a ditch because we fell asleep behind the wheel. Some will make it out of the ditch, others won't.

Bikers I encountered in Charlotte, NC. There were probably about 100 of them.

Anyway, I began my journey down south by hugging my sister and brother-in-law good-bye. We had spent the last few months living together under the same roof. As I waved and drove off, I was reminded of the fact that although I cherished the months we'd spent together, I was excited to be beginning a new chapter in my journey. Parting wasn't easy, there were several times during the journey where I felt torn between going back "home" and continuing on towards my new "home." I was deeply saddened, and I miss them dearly already.

There were men and women. The men rode in the back and infront, and the women rode in the middle.

By the time I was half-way through my journey down South, I had learned a few other lessons about this journey called life. I started the journey out with some drivers in Virginia, then bit by bit, mile by mile, we began to head off in different directions. Some merged onto the highway at different points in the journey, and we headed together in the same direction until they too exited and became part of the past. At times, I was the one who exited (for gas, bathroom breaks, coffee breaks and such), and became the one to head off in a different direction. 

A few times I merged back onto the highway to see a car that had exited somewhere along the journey and had now re-merged, and we'd continue from where we left off, tailing each other, passing and maintaining a certain competitive speed. 

As we drove on, some would exit, others would merge, I'd meet new companions, forge a relationship and on the journey went. We would travel in a convoy of four to five cars and cruise along at ease with each other, shutting outsiders out and welcoming the new-comers who were willing to respect the rules of the game. And every time a car would head off in a different direction, we'd glance at each other, smile, some even waved to indicate that even though our journey together had been silently acknowledged, we were all in this together and we all knew it. I feel weird admitting that every time a vehicle in our convoy exited, I felt a great sense of loss and sadness. At times, I pushed myself to keep up, to keep going with the convoy, reluctant to slow down and fall behind, even sometimes reluctant to exit for gas, or a bathroom break, because I didn't want to disrupt the flow.

 I found it all so fascinating I had to pull out my camera in highway traffic. I'd never seen this many
African-American bikers. Their coordination was on-point! Considering what happened in NY

We kept each other awake and alert. We were all journeying towards various destinations but as we cruised together, we looked out for each other until it was time to say good-bye. At a point in Virginia, right before South Hill, a driver I had just passed blinked her headlights at me continuously. I slowed down just before the highway patrol cruiser passed me, turned on blue and red lights and made a left turn into one of those "Authorized Vehicles Only" paths where they go to hide and target speeding drivers. I was grateful for the other driver's gesture and when I got the chance to return the favor once during my journey, I did. But it was also the fact that the officer respected her looking out for me and refused to pull me over, since I'm sure he had probably already clocked my speed before I slowed down.

Life is full of kind gestures, returned favors, grace, exits, merges, convoys called friends, family, work relationships, etc. It is also full of interruptions such as bathroom breaks, coffee breaks, breaks to refill gas, and so on. 

Those we start our journey with, don't always make it to the same destination. It's a journey we travel together, but getting to the destination is all on us. There are those who exit along the way, those who wave good-bye and continue on their own path to their destination, those we rediscover after a break in the journey, those we discover once we exit and merge back onto the highway, those who stick with us, offering us protection and a sense of belonging, those we welcome into our convoys if only they agree to live by the rules of the game, and those who must be left behind because they got tired and took their foot off the accelerator. And, unfortunately, there are also those who never complete the journey. They fall asleep behind the wheel, end up in a ditch and don't come out alive.

It's amazing what something as simple as a road trip can teach us. In the end, we are all responsible for our own journeys. Those traveling with us can only go the journey with us as far as they're able to, but it's up to us to handle life's situations as they're thrown at us. And when we finally reach where we're going, we can relax and only hope that all the other drivers made it safely too.