Rules for the Unruly - Living an Unconventional Life

Zusatztext Henry Winkler Marion Winik's ability to see the human condition resonates in every one of us. She's the clearest communicator I know. Informationen zum Autor Marion Winik Klappentext In the "anti-graduation" book of the year, NPR commentator Winik offers straightforward, pertinent advice for young people drawn to an unconventional life. Leseprobe Chapter 1: The Path Is Not Straight Let's say there's a well-lit, limited-access, four-lane highway stretching straight and clear ahead of you, but the slow, funky back road with the doughnut shop and the cheap motels is calling your name. You call it curiosity and adventure, your parents call it stupidity and rebellion, but something in you can't resist taking the next exit. On the other hand, let's say you have your destination firmly in mind and every intention of taking the interstate to get there -- but the sawhorses are out, the orange Detour sign is up, and there's nothing you can do about it. You've taken a different road and maybe even ended up in a different place. Sometimes life rear-ends you, freezes your transmission, sticks a nail in your tire, or roars up behind you with sirens blaring and blue lights whirling -- and you ain't goin' nowhere, honey, at least not for a while. Unwanted deviations from the plan are also a fact of life, and they are not always as disastrous as they first seem. When you're young, it can seem like the routes are laid out, the itineraries assigned, and the outcome of the whole stupid rat race already decided. Everybody already knows who is pretty, who is rich, who is smart, who is a nerd with no luck at all. Well, wait twenty years and go to your high school reunion, as I did, and see how very wrong this is. In the end, there's no rat race at all because there are neither rats nor a race: just people, becoming who they are. I had planned to start my talk that night in New Jersey by telling my audience that the path is not straight, and that this is the thing I know now that I most wish I knew then. But then I realized that while knowing it is a comfort, one I'm damn glad to have when I need it, it doesn't really change anything. No matter how many times life surprises you, it never seems to lose its capacity to do so. Even you don't lose your capacity to surprise you. Just wait till you think you're all done and settled to see what I mean. Then wait till the time after that. And the one after that, too. Because the path is not straight, nor does it end every time it seems to, life is an adventure. And as dark as the passages and confusing as the cul-de-sacs you find yourself in, it's generally safe to assume that progress is being made. Something is unfolding. You are becoming. But the circuitousness of the journey is one of those things that keep coming as a big shock. You probably think -- in fact, you can hardly be blamed for thinking -- that after A and B and C comes D. That after high school comes college. That after love comes marriage, after pregnancy comes children, after hard work comes reward. It does, but only often enough to confuse you. The rest of the time, after A and B and C come a car accident, a job offer, a chance to run a marathon in Finland, or even just a total loss of interest in D, not to mention E and F. After high school comes the drug bust, or the pregnancy, which was supposed to come after the marriage, which instead was followed by the heartbreak or the tedium or the decision to go back to D and work in his coffee shop. Then, out of turn and when you least expect it, K and L appear on the horizon, and a couple years later you have an MBA. Or an STD. The many derailments of life fall into two categories: the chosen and the unchosen. In chosen departures, you willfully alter your direction -- often making everyone you know furious at you. They can't for the life of them understa...

Product details

• Authors: M. Winik, Marion Winik
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2008
• EAN: 9780743216036
• ISBN: 978-0-7432-1603-6
• No. of pages: 192
• Subjects: Guides > Hobby, home > Creative design; BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / General, Mind, Body, Spirit