I like my eggs scrambled. I know this. It’s taken me years of trying them many ways, but now I know. I like them scrambled.
There’s a scene in the movie Runway Bride where Richard Gere’s character points out to Julia Roberts’s character that with every man she’s dated (or in her case run away from at the altar), she’s liked her eggs however they liked them. It wasn’t really about the eggs of course. The eggs were a metaphor. She didn’t really know who she was. Only after a year of spending time alone, and trying eggs in all of the different ways, does she learn how she likes them and who she is. And only then did she truly find happiness.
I was reminded of that movie this week. Music often inspires me, and this week I was listening to the song Country Again by Thomas Rhett. In it he celebrates finding his way back to who he is…who he has always been. He talks about trading Nashville for LA and reflects that he had stopped fishing and wearing his boots. His friends all thought he was too busy to talk, and he was spending too much time on his phone. He doesn’t regret those decisions. Each of them led him to the life he’s leading now. But the song is a celebration of finding his way back to who is really is.
“I saw the light. I found my way home.”
I have in many ways been a chameleon throughout my life. I feel comfortable in many environments, and I can fit myself into a variety of situations. I can be whoever I think I need to be in any give situation.
It’s a gift.
But like Julia Roberts’s character in the movie, if you fit yourself in too tightly, you can forget who you really are.
I don’t do that anymore.
I’ve embraced being 53, and one of the things that I’ve learned as I’ve rounded half a century on this earth is who I am. It’s been a bit of a journey, but I’m there. I’m lucky to work in a profession with such great intrinsic motivation. My job, my obligations, my commitments are all important to me. I take great pride in doing them well. For a long time they have defined me. But with age comes wisdom. I know now that my family and my friends in and outside of work and my well-rounded life define who I am. My triplet grandchildren help me remember what’s important.
“I saw the light. I found my way home.”
Be That Person 