I caught up with an old friend and former colleague yesterday. He’s about to be my new boss having got in touch to see if I’d like to join him in crafting something awesome! After talking through life’s ups and downs and looking at software I wrote ten years ago – that, to our mutual surprise, is still in use – I reflected on things on the way home.

Although I’m not in regular contact with many former colleagues, I do hear snippets now and again. Very often they’re in a better financial position and/or more ‘successful’ in their career. They’ve further along the list of things that ‘grown ups’ tick as they get older. I felt societal expectation stomping around these thoughts and recognise it now in a way that escaped me before recovering from a mental breakdown.

Chatting to my desk buddy about life this morning, we clearly weren’t on the same page. I’d have tried harder to get my view across but I realised that although we’re in the same place, we’re on very different journeys. We’re looking in different directions and have very different goals, so of course we have a different view of what lays ahead.

I’m not going where she’s going.