Puzzle Pieces

The other night I was putting together a stubborn puzzle. I was becoming extraordinarily frustrated because none of the pieces would fit together. Finally, a tall glass of root beer and a full Billy Joel CD later, a piece was successfully reunited with its neighboring pieces. As I connected it to the puzzle, I had a thought. People are a lot like puzzle pieces. We search and search for years to find our place in the world. Some of us find our place in the first try, and others fail time and again before they finally find their place. But the result is always the same. We find our place and realize “of course this is it. It couldn’t have been anywhere else.”

And I was content with this notion for a while.

But then I had another epiphany. We’re not at all like puzzle pieces. People don’t have a set destination, and we don’t always stay in the same place forever. We change our minds and move on. We’re restless and fickle creatures with ever changing desires. We’re far too erratic to ever stay in our assigned spots. Some of us fall prey to intense wanderlust and never come back to the start. Others circle and weave their way to and from the start, staying for random periods of time before leaving again. We’re simply unpredictable.

So no, people are not like puzzle pieces. I’m not sure that there is a metaphor, simile, or allegory that fits the human race. We’re vastly different from anything that’s ever lived or been made. We’re people with individual dreams, quirks, and personalities. We make horrible decisions, fall, and pick ourselves back up again, but we make progress in finding ourselves each time. And who knows if that place you’re heading will be your first or last stop on your trip. Just make sure you enjoy every moment of it and don’t ever stop yourself from trying something new or traveling somewhere because you think you’ve found your ‘place.’ Your place is where you decide you want to rest for a while or however long you like. The original picture on that puzzle may have been beautiful, but the pieces have a mind of their own and refuse to take part, and there’s a sort of beauty in that kind of revolution.