77. Be flexible and have a sense of humour.

If you have ever been a traveller, you know that the best laid plans of mice, men, and travel agents don’t always go as planned. On a recent trip in Viet Nam, we were waiting for a flight from Hoi An to Hanoi when our fellow travellers in the departure lounge started getting up, chattering to each other and leaving the room. The Vietnamese PA announcement, that we didn’t understand, apparently informed the passengers that our flight had just been cancelled. My friends and I looked at each other with blank stares and thought, “ What the heck do we do now?” Believe me, it was only because of our flexibility and sense of humour that we still continue to travel today. (pre-covid)

Travel invariably involves having to deal with the unexpected. I have experienced car trouble, severe weather, missed connections, lost luggage, airplane engine loss, and turbulent flights over the years. They are all very traumatic when they occur and will test our resilience, our problem solving abilities and above all our sense of humour. As Kipling said, more or less, “If you can keep your head when those around you are losing theirs, you don’t really understand the problem!” 

Our entire life is a journey and just as when we undertake leisure travel, we encounter the same kind of unexpected events that we must deal with. My career path began in left field when I enrolled in an Honours Chemistry program and completed it with little enjoyment or interest. I knew chemistry was not going to guide my life’s work so I shifted gears and took a year of teacher training. I became a teacher and loved it. Had I not changed directions when I did, who knows if  you would have ever been able to read this mesmerizing blog!

As those of you who know me can attest, I developed a sense of humour over the years. Sometimes it was appreciated and sometimes not so much. But because life can throw you so many curves over the years a well developed sense of humour certainly helps in dealing with life’s minor problems. Did you hear the one about the coal miner’s kid who gave up a promising career as a country and western lounge singer to become a teacher? Ha ha!