{"id":2916,"date":"2011-01-29T15:39:55","date_gmt":"2011-01-29T19:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/?p=2916"},"modified":"2019-06-07T13:41:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-07T17:41:08","slug":"reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2919\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2919\" style=\"width: 480px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tourismontheedge.com\/best-of\/10-tips-on-how-to-cliff-jump-without-getting-hurt.html\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2919 \" title=\"cliff-jumping-dancing\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/cliff-jumping-dancing.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/cliff-jumping-dancing.jpg 600w, https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/cliff-jumping-dancing-277x300.jpg 277w, https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/cliff-jumping-dancing-370x401.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2919\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I had a dream recently where I jumped off a skyscraper feet first and when I hit the ground, it was actually water -- so I just pointed my toes and slipped in unharmed. TourismOnTheEdge.com gives 10 pointers on cliff diving safely, including going feet first to avoid getting hurt.<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nEarlier this week I wrote a post headlined &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/2011\/01\/26\/feel-the-fear-and-do-it-anyway\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Feel the fear and do it anyway<\/a>,&#8221; about not letting fear limit our decisions.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve been reflecting on major forks in the road in my life and how often I have self limited by taking the conservative path &#8212; what my husband, John, calls being a good girl. If a decision could yield a payoff between 1 and 10, my fear of a 2 made me choose the nice safe 5 instead of taking a chance on a 9.<br \/>\nFor example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I did a study abroad in London when I was 21 and loved it there. Loved it. When the time came to go home, a boy I&#8217;d been dating said he&#8217;d talked to his roommates and they agreed I could stay there rent free until I could find a job and a place of my own. But I was too intimidated by not knowing how you get a work visa or what I&#8217;d even do there, fresh out of college and with no professional experience, so I flew home to the Bush recession instead.<\/li>\n<li>My ex-fiance and I had a big fight one night and I stormed off to look through the classified ads so I could move out into my own apartment. We argued too much and I knew it was the right thing to do, but my fear of being alone, of having to pay rent solo, that maybe I&#8217;d never do better than him, made me put away the classifieds and go home. So he could cheat on me and dump me a year or so later.<\/li>\n<li>After graduating with my MBA, my job search was taking longer than I&#8217;d hoped. I was getting discouraged, and I prayed for a sign about what I was supposed to do. While on a European vacation, I was reading Tom Wolfe&#8217;s latest book when Tom Wolfe himself was on our flight. We chatted with him, found out he was giving a talk that night and we went. He passionately advocated that journalists make great novelists because we understand how to research experiences outside our own, we&#8217;re trained to listen to dialogue and transcribe quotes, we know how to get to the essence of a story. One of my favorite writers, dressed all in white, was the guardian angel telling me I&#8217;d be a great novelist, but I still didn&#8217;t finish the novel I&#8217;d started long ago, and continued to search for a corporate job.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2921\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2921\" style=\"width: 448px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-2921\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/2011\/01\/29\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/olympus-digital-camera-2\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2921  \" title=\"OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/wolfe.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"448\" height=\"335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/wolfe.jpg 640w, https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/wolfe-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/wolfe-370x276.jpg 370w, https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/wolfe-600x448.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2921\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I asked for guidance about what to do with my life, and one of my favorite writers, a former journalist dressed all in white, happened to be on our flight to Amsterdam. Tom Wolfe = writing guardian angel?<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThis is not to say nothing good has come from making the safe choice &#8212; that Frank and I weren&#8217;t sometimes happy together or that I didn&#8217;t love moving to NYC for my post-MBA career. Just that I&#8217;ll never know what magic might have ensued if I&#8217;d been willing to take the risk.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nBy contrast, some choices I&#8217;ve made that were more impulsive, more in my heart, turned out amazing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>That study abroad? I really knew nothing about the program when I signed up. I saw a poster on the journalism department bulletin board, which was the way we learned about things in prehistoric times before the Internet and e-mail. I mailed in the form to get an info packet, and sent off my application not knowing another soul who was going. It was the first time I&#8217;d gotten a passport, because in those pre 9\/11 days, living in Michigan and going across to Canada was not *really* like going to a foreign country. The experience of living outside the country changed me in innumerable ways.<\/li>\n<li>Another travel abroad story: I had a dream after my mom died that I was supposed to take my aunt, my mom&#8217;s sister, to Rome to see the pope. My super-Catholic, Polish aunt didn&#8217;t have a passport and is terrified of flying, but she said yes anyway. It wasn&#8217;t the easiest trip I&#8217;ve ever taken but when Pope John Paul died shortly after we celebrated Easter mass at the Vatican, it felt like I&#8217;d done the right thing.<\/li>\n<li>I did almost no research into MBA programs before applying to Michigan. I&#8217;d been considering a master&#8217;s in journalism, mainly to take a little sabbatical from working, I think, when I learned Michigan had a part-time MBA program so I could keep earning my paycheck and get an advanced degree. I&#8217;m not sure why I felt I needed more education, although on some level it was a bit of competition with my ex-fiance who was going to law school, as well as just wanting more options than a life in daily newspapers. I got in, and it led me to living in New York &#8212; which I really wanted to do, though I could never fully explain why.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What&#8217;s my takeaway? That the safe path sometimes isn&#8217;t as safe as it appears &#8212; going back to Frank still led to heartbreak, and going back to the U.S. meant taking a job that paid so little I was on the poverty scale at the county health department &#8212; and sometimes the risky path isn&#8217;t so risky.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Earlier this week I wrote a post headlined &#8220;Feel the fear and do it anyway,&#8221; about not letting fear limit our decisions. &nbsp; I&#8217;ve been reflecting on major forks in the road in my life and how often I have self limited by taking the conservative path &#8212; what my husband, John, calls being a good girl. If a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[426,455,458,708,907,1029,1118,1339,1558,2280,2293,2315],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap - Newvine Growing<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap - Newvine Growing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Earlier this week I wrote a post headlined &#8220;Feel the fear and do it anyway,&#8221; about not letting fear limit our decisions. &nbsp; I&#8217;ve been reflecting on major forks in the road in my life and how often I have self limited by taking the conservative path &#8212; what my husband, John, calls being a good girl. If a&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newvine Growing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-01-29T19:39:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-06-07T17:41:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/no-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen Newvine Tebeau\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Colleen Newvine Tebeau\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/\",\"name\":\"Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap - Newvine Growing\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-01-29T19:39:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-06-07T17:41:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#\/schema\/person\/34671ebbbb37e4c1cc97f2f5ac1b1646\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/\",\"name\":\"Newvine Growing\",\"description\":\"Live life intentionally\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#\/schema\/person\/34671ebbbb37e4c1cc97f2f5ac1b1646\",\"name\":\"Colleen Newvine Tebeau\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/700a4f604ab1d15dc1062a892418c128?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/700a4f604ab1d15dc1062a892418c128?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Colleen Newvine Tebeau\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/author\/cnewvine\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap - Newvine Growing","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap - Newvine Growing","og_description":"&nbsp; Earlier this week I wrote a post headlined &#8220;Feel the fear and do it anyway,&#8221; about not letting fear limit our decisions. &nbsp; I&#8217;ve been reflecting on major forks in the road in my life and how often I have self limited by taking the conservative path &#8212; what my husband, John, calls being a good girl. If a&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/","og_site_name":"Newvine Growing","article_published_time":"2011-01-29T19:39:55+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-06-07T17:41:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":500,"url":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/no-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Colleen Newvine Tebeau","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Colleen Newvine Tebeau","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/","url":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/","name":"Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap - Newvine Growing","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-01-29T19:39:55+00:00","dateModified":"2019-06-07T17:41:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#\/schema\/person\/34671ebbbb37e4c1cc97f2f5ac1b1646"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/reflecting-on-forks-in-the-road-on-being-conservative-or-taking-a-leap\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Reflecting on forks in the road, on being conservative or taking a leap"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#website","url":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/","name":"Newvine Growing","description":"Live life intentionally","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#\/schema\/person\/34671ebbbb37e4c1cc97f2f5ac1b1646","name":"Colleen Newvine Tebeau","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/700a4f604ab1d15dc1062a892418c128?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/700a4f604ab1d15dc1062a892418c128?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Colleen Newvine Tebeau"},"url":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/author\/cnewvine\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/no-image.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.communify.me\/newvinegrowing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}