On Monday, I was at a yoga class led by a friend of mine whom I’ve been doing yoga with whenever I’m in Seattle ever since the studio opened three years ago (definitely check it out if you’re in Seattle or Portland at The Grinning Yogi). She always shares with us interesting anecdotes and stories that help us grasp an idea to focus on during the class, and as I sat parked in child’s pose, she told us one that resonated particularly strongly with what I’ve been going through in my preparations for Kyrgyzstan.

She was in Portland, Oregon the other day, and a friend of hers invited her to have tea at a new tea house in the area. The tea house, it turned out, was run by a nice man who had set up a cute little tea space in the garage of his house, with thermoses filled with delicious mixtures of high-quality teas.

Now, my (Mark’s) first instinct was to judge.  I thought to myself, “wow, that is SO PORTLAND,” contextualizing his little establishment in conformity and what society would expect for him to do.

But as she explained, it may have been this man’s life long dream to run a small tea shop in his garage. He may have previously followed society’s expectations into a path that wasn’t fulfilling for him, succumbing to pressures from what the world told him to be. But now, he had taken a risk to follow his dreams of opening a little tea shop. It may not have been much, but it was his, and he was happy because of it.

I’m obviously butchering the story – she does a much better job framing these anecdotes more meaningfully and respectfully than I do, but the story illustrates an important point: you have to follow the path that’s right, and not be afraid to take a risk to do so. After college, I followed the safe, socially acceptable path into consulting and government. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy what I was doing – I absolutely loved the past two years working in global health and government. What I’m trying to say is that I didn’t take a risk and take the leap I needed to take for myself.

So that’s what I’m doing now. I’m setting aside my “expected” and safe path of consulting, finance, government, and all of that, and going for an unknown that I know will be fulfilling for me. All of my closest friends have reacted with some variation of “that is SO you,” or “that is EXACTLY what you should be doing.” It’s scary, it’s a risk, and if you ask me three months from now, I’ll probably say something along the lines of “WHAT AM I DOING HERE?” But I know it’s what is right for me.

My time in Kyrgyzstan is going to be my little garage tea shop. What will yours be?