There's a line in the movie Eat, Pray, Love that really hit me. It is when Liz is walking away from a boat trip to a private island. After the Brazilian man says this, he follows with, "You are going away from the great possibilities of your own life." This was significant, because she had been searching for her life, and balance, throughout her whole three-country exploration of food, faith and personal peace.

It made me think of the chances one takes to follow dreams, education, travel, whatever...even "going blond" with a wig. Wow, did life change for me by my embarking on those adventures. How life must have also changed for my relatives who took boats over from Europe a hundred or more years ago. They didn't have alopecia (that I know of), but it must have been both scary and exciting to start over somewhere else, with few possessions. One grandma did it at 16, traveling by herself; the other did it with three kids under six years old. Neither knew English. Moving across country at 21, to a place where I only knew one friend, was my own first giant step.

Now that the college has cancelled my needed class and put off my goals (and student loan) for me by an entire semester, what will I be choosing to do this Fall? Must I move out of my house? Is unemployment just opportunity in disguise, as the movie Up in the Air would have us believe?

Any big change holds unknown possibilities. I wonder how many of us miss, or have missed, huge life adventures with alopecia as the excuse...and how many have an adventure waiting in the wings? What is waiting for you, that makes you think of walking away? What might result if you didn't walk away from a challenge?