I drive a lot. I can’t really say I go many places but I drive a lot. Destinations sometimes aren’t even set. I drive a lot. It’s my way to escape and always has been since I was able to drive. I have always found a connection to the road whether it be local streets or the open and almost seemingly limitless highways of Texas.  I turn the music on to get lost in my own head, each song taking me to a place I have been before. Most of the time the nostalgia will bring a tear to my eye as I relive a period my life through a 4 minute music worm hole. Then the next song plays transporting me to another period in my life and then repeat time and time again with each song that plays. I get lost in the memories and sometimes the memories are so raw I can feel the exact emotion I once felt.

On a recent work road trip I was driving 120 miles of what I like to consider the empty highway. I have driven  this particular stretch of highway many times in the period of 8 years. It was during this trip I relized how much is different the road was from the first time I had driven the road. The road has become wider to accomodate the amount of traffic the highways sees. What was once a gravel road is now asphalt road. What was once a two lane highway is now a four lane highway and at times there is even a middle lane. At a point in time the field on either side was either a field of cotton or that of farmland rich with mesquite trees and cows. Now on either side you’ll see oil derects, cotton fields, new homes, and of course farmland. Looking just right in the horizon though you will always see open sky and what appears to be an endless road. So much has happened over this 8 year period of time for this particular road. So much has happened over this 8 year period of time in my life.

As I drive I sometimes imagine where some of the side roads would lead. If I turned off to see would I have to turn around or would this connect me somehow back in line to my orignal destination? It is true that every road leads somewhere. If my life where a story to tell it would be that of a boy, a young man and a man that travels down roads while on a highway of life.

Everybody has a highway and some elect to stay on theirs for safety. My highway is full of turnoffs but those turnoffs will eventually make one hell of a story. I like to look at my life through analogies sometimes. While I drive literally down memory lane I realize how much I have traveled. The driver has always been the same but much like the highway I was recently on many things change over time. Now of course the driver grows and changes as well but still inside that driver are all the memories unlocked while he travels.

There is an expression that I have heard people say “sometimes I drive to clear my head”. I have always laughed on the inside because I know you drive to fill your head.

I would never change a road I traveled. Each road has given me the opportunity and time to learn more about myself. I have many more roads to travel while driving down my highway. I hope to meet some incrediable people. I hope to share many moments that will last with me till the end. I hope some are as unforgeable as ones before. Hopefully some of the roads I travel will lead me to familar places. I drive a alot. I can’t really say I go a lot of places but I drive a lot.