You are so right about this non-linearity of life, Nicole. I stumbled into it when I found myself stuck "on a path that no longer served me" as you said. If I had come across your article at that time, it would have given me even more motivation to embrace the new path that I chose. At that time, I lived in Germany and wanted to change a profoundly unsatisfactory private situation. So I volunteered to be assigned overseas. My first assignment was to Saudi Arabia, where I spent the next 4 years. From then on, it was different countries in the Far East. Only after more than 20 years I came back and visited the department that I had left 20 years earlier. Seeing many of the same people there having done the same job, and generally lived that linear life, was an eye-opener for me. I realized there and then that I had done something with my life, that most people don't even dare to dream. And my dream is still going on as a reality.