I'm the type of person who normally just likes to get to where I'm going as quickly as possible. But a week or so ago, I was driving home from somewhere and as I got close to the road I needed to turn onto to get home, I couldn't get over because the traffic was so heavy. I took an alternative route and ended up passing by my former grade school that is now an apartment building. It's a big red brick building and as I passed it, I was reminded of the many summer days I spent behind the building knocking a tennis ball off the back wall. I hadn't thought about those days in years.
A few days later, as I was coming home, I decided to take yet another alternative route into my neighborhood. I passed several houses that some of my old school buddies used to call home. I wondered what and how they were doing. Since then, I've continued to take alternative routes home. I'm driving by intersections where I used to stand in the freezing cold when I was a safety patrol. And I'm driving by old parking lots that I used to ride my bike on. I even drove down a brick road the other day that I haven't been on in more than ten years.
Taking alternative routes is always going to have to be a planned thing for me. But now that I am actually doing it, I'm enjoying it more than I ever imagined.
