Last night I went to my college’s commencement ceremony. It was the first time I’ve gone to one where I wasn’t the one graduating. In fact, when I got there, someone directed me to the students’ area rather than faculty. I know I look a little younger than my 40+ years, but I was a little put out that she didn’t notice I was wearing my way cool, hard-earned hood, which you sure has heck don’t earn as an under grad.

So, the beginning of the evening was pretty hectic (as I suspected). From the traffic and then being sent to the wrong waiting area and then wandering back to where the faculty were hanging out, it was all about to work my last nerve. But then, it started and we marched out and took our seats, and it was really a beautiful night out. A cool breeze was flowing through the stadium. I was sitting between two teacher buds of mine, and one of my dearest friends in the whole wide world gave the opening prayer and really rocked the house.

Soon it was time for the keynote speaker, and of course, in the front of my mind I was thinking, “Oy, I hope this dude doesn’t yammer on and on.”

And he didn’t. In fact, he kept it pretty short and sweet, and to top it off, I felt like I had a nice little tidbit to blog about today to boot. No big surprise, the gist of his address was that the future is out there for the grads, waiting for them to take it on and make it big.

One point he mentioned – and I’m totally paraphrasing because he said it way better – was that while you can plan all you want for your future, the only thing you can really plan on is that your plan may not materialise as you had expected. So, you need to be open to new possibilities.

I think this is great advice to anyone, and as I thought about what he said, I realized it really spoke to me as far as my writing and crafting career. Back in the late 80s/early 90s, I was totally focused on selling my jewelry. I tried every which way and then some to do it, and I was fairly successful to a certain extent, but I learned more than anything else that the selling part was not my thing.

It wasn’t like I couldn’t do it. In fact, I did do it for many years. Somethings didn’t work, of course, but many things did work for me. It was more like I didn’t like doing it. Making the jewelry, yes, and watching people buy and wear my jewelry, yes, but getting from one to the other, not so much.

Luckily, an unlucky event, getting axed at a job I didn’t like anyway, forced me to rethink everything I was doing, and that included the jewelry (among many other items). That’s when I applied for the Jewelry Making site at About.com, and I discovered that my love of crafting jewelry and my love of crafting text were a perfect match.

My original plan, which was to get my jewelry selling empire going to the point I could leave my crappy job, never worked out. Granted, I was forced out of one, but because of that, I woke up and took a good look around me and tried something different. And, because I tried something different I discovered a whole new career path that I had no idea even existed. The blinders that I had on (which were making me focus on only selling my jewelry and nothing) else fell off, and I could see that I could still do what I loved to do and still make a living at it, just not like I had originally planned to do.

What about you? Do you have blinders on right now and may not even realize it? Has your master plan kept you from considering any other possibilities in your life?