Sometimes You Gotta Swerve

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Happy New Year! I’m celebrating World Introvert Day by uploading my first blog post of the year. I’m excited to share with you all of the fun stuff in my head that may or may not happen. You guys know me well enough by now to understand.

I wanted to start off this year by sharing my word for the year. Instead of making resolutions, I come up with a word or theme that I will be looking for throughout the year.

Last year, my theme was dig deeper. I know I did some digging, but I don’t know how deep I got. Maybe it was the amount of digging I did to persevere through work, or the amount of digging I did for my story for NaNoWriMo last year (and the pain that came with it). Thinking back, I can see that it all added up.

This year, I decided on a word that might not make sense at first. Or, it might make a lot of sense and I don’t have to explain anything, and this post is done.

Sike. Just kidding. You’re not getting away that easy.

My word for 2019 is:

Swerve

• Verb

  • change or cause to change direction abruptly

• Noun

  • an abrupt change of direction

• Origin

  • Old English sweorfan ‘depart, leave, turn aside,’ of Germanic origin; related to Middle Dutch swerve ‘to stray.’

I came up with this word towards the end of the year when I heard someone say, “change lanes.” That sounds like something I could say. “This year, I’m changing lanes.”  While that sounds good, that doesn’t quite go with my personality. I like the image of swerve better. Changing lanes is polite, swerve has a sense of urgency.

I talked with my mother about the imagery of swerve. Here is a segment I like to call:

Sometimes You Gotta Swerve

 

Sometimes you gotta swerve:

 

To Avoid

We swerve around live/dead animals, accidents, etc.  It’s ok to get out of your lane if you want to avoid something potentially dangerous.

 

To Get Around People

Sometimes, we get behind some pretty slow drivers.  I live in a touristy area, where lots of out-of-towers come to vacation.  Driving behind them on a two lane road can test one’s patience real quick.  But on a highway, you have room to swerve to get around slow drivers, and to get into the fast lane.

 

To Get Away From People

Other times, we get in front of people who get right up on your butt with their headlights and brights on, shining into your rear view mirror, making you wonder if you should speed up or pull over.  Here’s a tip: if you don’t want to speed up, don’t.  Move over to another lane that is better suited for your speed preference.  It’s ok to drive in the slow lane. Enjoy the scenery, relax, take a breather. The fast lane will still be there.

 

To Get Out Of The Comfort Zone

Have you ever driven home, only to realize you don’t know how you got there?  It’s ok to swerve to get out of a routine.  It’s ok to take a different road home.  You might discover something you would have never seen, had you stayed in your routine.  Don’t be oblivious to other lanes that are around you, leading to different destinations.

 

At the end of the day, you get to choose what lane you’re in.  “Stay in your lane,” is a way for people to make sure the lane that they are in is clear for them.  It’s also a warning not to spread yourself thin.  Don’t swerve into the fast lane, thinking you’re ready for it. You might be a little too ambitious.  But, would you like to know a secret? Even though life is a highway, it’s not a real highway. The accidents that happen aren’t life threatening. They’re accidents, but the beauty of life is, you can swerve back to the slow lane, to get yourself back on track.

I don’t know in what lanes I will be swerving into this year, but that’s ok. I don’t have to know. But in order to see what lanes I’ve crossed into, I have to cross into a lane. I have to turn aside from what I normally do, and depart from the idea that what worked last year, is going to work this year. This means that I have to swerve.  I have to take a chance.

 

What lanes will you be swerving into this year? What lanes would you like to swerve into? What lanes would you like to avoid?

 

Thank you for reading, and I’ll talk to you later!