Losing Your Purpose

I have a question for you all. It initially pertained to writing but could be translated to life in general.
Have you ever lost track of a goal? When you start a summr job, was it just to make money but then by the end of it your focus had shifted? I wonder if that has ever happened when someone is writing a story. What if you set out on this journey... initially it was to find adventure or some buried treasure. But what if along the way, you found something else? What if you found a community, a sense of belonging? What if you found the basecamp to some shady underground facility? (I did say "buried" treasure, remember.) What if you found something better? What if you found something worse? In short, what if you lost track of why you set out in the first place, but the things/people/places you discovered along the way were more fulfilling in some way than what you had originally intended?
It's just a thought. I've been thinking of "Story E" lately and there's a part that involves a forest and this community of people who live there. They are a cross between Robin Hood and the Mud People from Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. One of the characters starts to wonder if he/she should really pursue what they set out to do, or if he/she could make a life with these vagabonds, these outlaws. A content life. But that character struggles with the reasons behind his/her original intent. Would it be an insult to the people they set out to please to abandon their journey of peril and settle down, while always leaving a part of themselves unquenched?
Am I making any sense here? I'm really curious what other people think about this, especially for characters in a book. I know it's like a rule that the main character always keeps their quest in mind, but for argument's sake, don't people lose track of their purposes sometimes? Don't intentions, meanings, and trains of thought get blurred occasionally?
Discuss....

-Grace

We Want What We Can't Have... Gorram Netflix Queue

I don't know what it is, but I seem to have an unhealthy obsession with television shows that have been canceled. Perhaps I should really explain that more. I spend an embarrassing amount of time on YouTube and find clips from TV shows I've never seen or heard of. My first introduction to cancelled shows several years ago was Joss Whedon's "Firefly." After that I sort of spiraled in this path of thinking, "What else have I missed?" and "Why was this canceled?" Also among those thoughts was "FOX cannot be trusted!" But moving on... I remember I went through a brief "Buffy" phase (this was when I first discovered Hulu.com) and even enjoyed "Legend of the Seeker" before it got polished off, although the last episode I remember of that series was the one with the fever. CREEPY!!! What else has there been? "X-Men: Evolutions" was one although I still have yet to finish that series. I loved "Leverage" while it lasted, though technically that doesn't count as being cancelled since the series reached a pretty natural closing point (for everyone except Eliot, but I suppose we can all dream). Stumbling upon "Being Human" on the BBC was quite a treat. My first awareness of Aidan Turner before he got all Dwarfed-up. Actually, wasn't he a werewolf in "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones" before he was a Dwarf? Hmm... No, I'm quite sure Ireland native was a Dwarf before he was a werewolf... and a vampire before he was a Dwarf. What were we talking about? Scroll, scroll, scrolling through the conversation, oh, yeah! Canceled TV shows. "Being Human." My most recent obsession has been "Pushing Daisies" starring Lee Pace and Anna Friel. It's actually quite quirky and fun. Lots of comedy, color, romance... it has the feel of a modern fairy tale. If you're more into the zombie scene, then let me summarize the show for you: Ned is a pie maker with the unique ability of bringing something dead back to life for sixty seconds, after which time the person must either be put back to rest via Ned's second touch, or someone in proximity take their place. Thus the universe remains in balance. The Pie Maker and Private Investigator Emerson Cod team up to solve specific homicide cases. Specific meaning those that offer a reward for finding the murder victim's killer. Ned touches the victim, bringing them temporarily back to life, he asks them how they die, touches them again, and the pair split the reward money. All is good and well-to-do until the day Ned brings his childhood sweetheart (Anna Friel) back to life... and keeps her alive. The circumstances surrounding their friendship and the long separation since childhood certainly create for an interesting dynamic, especially since Ned cannot touch his friend, because doing so a second time would kill her permanently. Add to this the blatant stylings of Chi McBride and wonderfully talented Kristin Chenoweth and you've got yourself the vibrant cast of "Pushing Daisies."
...
Well I like the show. I may focus on the BBC's "Robin Hood" next, that looks promising. Of course I could always just read some Wiki synopsis and spoil the entire thing, but that ruins the whole experience of sitting down and watching the show (as if we don't do enough of that). So yeah, "Robin Hood" is probably next. What TV shows do you usually watch? My brother is really into "The Walking Dead," I like "Castle" and "Once Upon a Time," my sister and brother-in-law are "NCIS" diehards. Are you a more "Pretty Little Liars" or "Master Chef" kind of person?

-Grace