The Straight and Narrow

She was unhappy. She tried to tell her parents, suggested taking a year off, but the answer was no, so off to college she went. She was unhappy, but she met a boy, fell in love, made it through to graduation. She did what was expected, walked that well defined path to job, house, marriage, she became they, and though they were in love, they were also unhappy. They thought it may be where they were living, it was boring, nothing fun ever happened, if they moved, they thought, then they would be happy. So they sold the house, relocated, moved to an island in the Bay. They settled into their new life, and found that still they were unhappy.

They did make friends though, which was something they hadn’t had since college, so that was nice. Their new friends lived on a boat, which was intriguing. People live on boats, they had never considered it. How does that even work, and what is it like, they wondered, so they Googled it. Their search brought up something even more interesting, not only do people live on their boats, people sail them, not just around San Francisco Bay, but around the world, thousands of people, normal people, traveling the world's seas in their little sailboats. They were fascinated.

So they learned to sail, every weekend on the Bay, with the wind and the waves, first in their friend’s boat, and then in their own. It wasn’t always easy, but it was fun. They were no longer unhappy, now they had a goal.

It took ten years to finally break free from the moorings of their life, to cast off the lines and sail away from that straight and narrow path of expectation, into a dream they had chosen for themselves. It was a Tuesday afternoon, a perfect early fall day, the winds were fresh and the horizon was calling as they left the Bay under the Golden Gate, venturing away from that clearly defined path, into the bushes and weeds, creating their own way. They were finally happy.