Sometimes we’re so focused on where we’re headed, we forget how far we’ve come. This week has been such a week. I’m waiting to hear back on an opportunity I’ve applied for and planning projects and growth with my boss. My eyes are on the future.

Social media can be a toxic rabbit hole, but one thing Facebook is good for is memories. Each day memories pop up to remind me what I was doing on this day in previous years. Yesterday, it was a photo from eight years ago that caught my eye. I was pregnant with my son and enrolled in a MotherToBaby Pregnancy Study specifically for women taking biologic medications to control their autoimmune disease while pregnant.

My caption on the photo was long, but it read, in part, “I can do a lot of things, but I can’t hold a full-time job because rest is in my daily equation, and I never know when I’ll need more of it… I am amazed that around this broken body of mine I can grow this little boy. I’m very satisfied with that.”

Wow.

Eight years later, I have a beautiful son, a full-time job and a very full life. Much of this I owe to my doctors and the seeming miracle of the right medication that medical science brings.

The other part of this that I must recognize was my unwillingness to try again. Having to resign from one full-time job that I loved because of my illness was heartbreaking. After, I was afraid to try again. So, I didn’t. I worked on a freelance and contract basis. It gave me flexibility and offered me the opportunity to be professionally active in a way that didn’t let anyone down — including myself.

Then, the pandemic happened. In all of its hardships it also brought a gift. It showed the world that remote work was possible and that skills like mine can and should exist in a hybrid space.

The right opportunity presented itself and I wanted to try again. I’m glad I did. I had not given up on my dreams, but this prospect of doing what I loved on a full-time basis showed me that I had been existing in a space of self-induced limitations.

I’ve told my children many times that the world will tell you no. Life will tell you no. Don’t do it for them by not ever trying. How could I not take my own advice?

I’ll go back to the plate and focus on my future goals tomorrow. But today, right now, I want to savor the journey that got me here. Life is a winding road, and we don’t always know what’s waiting around the corner, but rest assured that sharp corner is there and sometimes the destination is not what you expected at all. I’m grateful I took the turn.