Empty Nest Syndrome

I’ve blogged before about the robins outside of my office window. Well, a few weeks back, the two surviving eggs hatched and out popped Harry and Lloyd (I was on a Dumb and Dumber kick when I named them). After a few days they started to grow and were super cute, then annoying because they wouldn’t stop chirping about wanting food, then back to cute again. Finally, it came time for them to leave home for good. Harry just jumped right up and flew away. Lloyd on the other hand was more cautious, inching along the windowsill for about an hour before finally flying to a nearby tree branch and then off into the unknown.

While I’m sad that they’re gone, I can’t help but realize that those birds are a pretty good analogy for my life. Assuming I complete my Peace Corps service on schedule, I will be done around Christmas, 2008. Had I gone to law school right out of undergrad, I would be working in some job I’m now pretty sure I would have hated by then. I don’t know where I’ll be in two and a half years or what I’ll be doing, but sometimes it really is worth it to just walk on the window sill for a while if you’re not sure where you want to fly.

Here’s one more analogy: better to be at the bottom of a ladder you want to climb than the middle of one you don’t.