Did you take the right road to happiness?

I got an email this morning from a friend of mine who’s gone home on leave.

He’s one of the most talented people I’ve ever met, with so much creativity and intelligence it makes you almost ashamed to be breathing the same air.
Of course, not being one to take a compliment, he’s going to cringe when he reads this but the truth of the matter is that this isn’t a compliment.
It’s just a simple fact. Some people are just born with generous gifts and his is an exceedingly high intellect that will take him a long way in life.
But like most highly-intelligent people he has absolutely no common sense or ability to comprehend the simple things and his trip home has left him confused and not quite sure he’s traveled the right path in life.
He has, by the way, and I’ve no doubt the path still has many a fascinating twist and turn but going home and seeing that his friends of old have moved on has given him pause for thought.
This in turn gave me pause for thought. How many of us have actually lived up to the dreams we had when were growing up? Have we even come close to achieving the things we once took for granted that we would do? And how many of us just live our lives trying to make it through another month of paying the bills?
Gemma Carter* decided from a young age to grab life by the horns and just see where it took her.
She always wanted to travel and make a life for herself that she could be proud to have lived.
It was never about achieving great goals or building a successful career, just simply learning more about life and the world in general.
“I left England as soon as I finished my studies when I was 22 and have been traveling ever since. I’m a freelance writer and am lucky enough to be able to take my work with me everywhere I go so it’s given me the freedom to do what I always wanted to do.
“Going home and seeing all the friends I grew up is a totally surreal experience.
“My life has moved on and I think I’ve come a long way from the teenager I used to be but when I go home a see my friends it’s almost as if time has stood still.
“Obviously they’ve all aged and some of them are now married with children but they mostly run around with the same crowd as we all did 10 years ago, doing pretty much the same kind of thing.
“The clubs and bars have been swapped for restaurants and dinners parties but other than that life doesn’t seem to have moved on.
“It’s not as if I live an international jet set lifestyle but at least I’ve traveled and lived around the world and got to see a whole different way of life.
“I love seeing my old friends again but I can’t help feeling that in this day and age they could have done so much more than grow up and live in the same place they were born and raised.”
By contrast, Anna Craig* admits that life hasn’t taken her anywhere she planned to go.
Having swapped a life in the fast lane for a family she admits that as much as she loves the life she leads, she can’t help wondering where she would be if she’d made a different decision.
She says: “I started modeling when I was 15 years old. It was like a dream come true and as soon as I left school I spent my time flying between New York, Paris and Milan.
“My career was just beginning to take off when I met and fell in love with my husband. I made the choice to settle down and have children and I although I love my family very much I can’t help wondering if I could have been the next Giselle Bundchen or Cindy Crawford.
“Who knows, maybe I could be rubbing shoulders with the A-list on the red carpet by now,” she adds with a little giggle.
As for myself, I may not have half a dozen Oscars under my belt or be living in an enchanted castle with prince charming but I’m halfway across the world, I work on the television and have a daily radio show with up to 100,000 listeners at any one time and I write for a paper with a distribution of 12,000. Admittedly, it’s in a country few people back home have ever heard of but at the end of the day it still beats fighting my way through rush hour tube traffic in the rain to a depressing desk job back in London.
And my proudest achievement to date?… “Well that’s easy – my amazing son!”
*Names changed to protect the innocent

Marie-Claire