What did you want to be when you grew up? Teacher, doctor, president? Maybe it was a ballerina or garbage truck driver. For me it was pilot.

For my boys who are 13, 11, 10 and 3, it’s fighter pilot, soldier, veterinarian and “Abenger”, respectively.

While I’m not a commercial pilot, I do fly, but more importantly I am a proud father, student, amateur house remodeler and – if life keeps me on this path – future teacher.

The path I have taken to get where I am now can only be described as “the road less traveled”. It has been dark, rocky and dangerous at times and undeniably bright and open at times. While each of us has our own path to follow, some easy, some hard, it is the decision we face daily to quit or to trudge on that makes us who we are.

I look at my children, with so much hope and promise ahead of them, and simply wonder, what will they become? Will they go to college? Will they be the men I envision them becoming? Will they be soldiers or doctors, cowboys or entrepreneurs?

I don’t know, they don’t know and that is the joy of it. They haven’t endured the trials, the heartaches, the fickle things that life throws at us to veer us off course. They have their dreams and the whole world in front of them.

Each step they take down their own path will ultimately affect my path.

I know there will be times that they stumble, maybe even fall down a rabbit hole, but that’s life. Those scraped knees, bumps and bruises build character, they shape and reshape us. There will be times when our paths intersect, overlap, run parallel and seem as though they will never again converge, but that’s life. Those are the choices we make.

So what did you want to be when you grew up? Have you decided to trudge on or did you let life derail you? Maybe you haven’t achieved your dreams, but maybe you just aren’t done growing up yet…