4. Peripatetic

At the beginning, I was a management consultant. With a business school degree.

In the early middle, I was a homemaker. With a handful of toddler.

In the middle of the middle, I was a teacher. With a teaching credential.

Now, in the late middle, I am an author and independent publisher, and most likely, still a (recharging) teacher.

One could say that I have had a peripatetic career. And a peripatetic education. 

The adjective peripatetic refers to the act or nature of traveling from place to place for short periods of time. As in the case of military personnel on active duty, or a resource teacher assigned to multiple schools.

My mind stretched the meaning to include not only the physical space, but also the intellectual. And hence my connection to changing careers and college degrees.

Although the sound of the adjective peripatetic may invoke the doom and gloom of it's close-sounding cousin 'pathetic', in my experience, it has been anything but. 

My peripatetic work and school history has given me a unique insight into varied cultures, situations, and behaviors. It has informed me about different subject matters. It has demanded that I keep stepping out of my comfort zone; that I accept, adapt, and eventually grow with every change. It has led to me to coin my own addition (underlined) to my favorite quote - 

All those who wander are not lost; they are just in a constant growth spurt.

The peripatetic nature of my existence has, for the most part, been a result of curiosity. It has also been a result of one glaring privilege - that my partner is not a peripatetic (oh gosh! the sound of that!) and therefore, I can rest in the awareness that curiosity is not going to starve this cat. At this moment at the very least.

What about you?

Have you ever had a peripatetic existence? Or opinion about one?