During an interview with Joseph Campbell, Bill Moyers said "We tell stories to try to come to terms with the world, to harmonize our lives with reality....myths are stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for signifcance. We all need to tell our story and to understand our story. We all need to understand death and to cope with death, and we all need help in our passages from birth to life and then to death. We need for life to signify, to touch the eternal, to understand the mysterious, to find out who we are."
Personally when I'm faced with a complicated situation I write about it. The writing is sloppy and messy, but getting the mess of thoughts out on paper is extremely clarifying for me. Like in the quote, telling stories allows us to connect with the world around us. In my case, I try to compare my personal situation to situations I've seen other people go through to try to find the best solution. Seeing everything on paper objectifies it and makes it easier for me to analyze my situation from a different angle. Later on after the situation is resolved it's nice to go back and reflect on how I've grown and what I've learned from a given situation.
As I get ready to cross the stage and accept my high school diploma next friday there are numerous people who have helped me get to where I am today. My parents have been there for each transition in to a new school, and are now helping me get ready to move 2000 miles away to Texas to start the next phase of my life. It hasn't been easy for them, and I'm sure it won't easy for me, but no matter what the circumstance they have always supported me 100% and I feel so incredibly grateful to have them as my parents. I wouldn't be graduating without my parents.
What do I want my life to mean? I feel as though that is a more important question than what should I be when I grow up. Since I was 5 I've known what I wanted to be when I grow up. Now that I am legally grown up, and have my plans laid out to get to the career path I want to be on, I ask myself that first question. When I am on my deathbed what do I want to see when I look back at my life? The answer is simple at first glance, I want to look back on my life and know that I've truly lived, but upon closer inspection the answer is much more complicated. How do I make sure I've lived my life to the fullest? I'm just figuring out the basics of my answer. For now that means enjoying the journey I'm on and being open to the bumps and obstacle in the road. It also means straying off the path, and taking those once in a lifetime opportunites. Sticking on the path well traveled on will get you where you want to go, but you won't learn the lessons you would if you took the path not taken by many. For me Texas is the path less traveled on. Sure I could go straight in to school and then straight to medical school, but spending a year in Texas traveling will teach me so many lessons that I wouldn't get in a chemistry lab. Some people say that the path less traveled on will get you lost, but I don't believe that to be true. Just because I'm choosing to delay college for a year, doesn't mean I'm loosing sight of my goal to become a pediatric physician. In fact it gives me more motivation. I've spent the last twelve years working my ass off, and still have 8 or more years of challenge coursework. Taking a break for a year will give me time to relax so when I do back to school I'll be ready.
In the past I've always looked forward, to next day, to the next race, to the next moment, but I've learned that the only thing that looking forward brings is disappointment. It's better to enjoy every moment, and everyday, even the bad ones, because before you know it, the moment you're in will be over. Planning and looking ahead is a great skill to have, but so is the ability to relax and enjoy the moment you're in with the people you're with. Learning that balance is a constant struggle for me, but that inner struggle between the planner part of me, and the happy go lucky part of is part of my journey, and so I embrace it. Though it may not be easy at the time, I always try to embrace my struggles, because 9 times out of 10 I learn an incredible amount from them. A teacher once told me that we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes, and I agree. Success is a wonderful thing, and I've been lucky enough to experience some success as have most people, but I'm sure they'd agree with me when I say that the journey to success would have been impossible without making some mistakes along the way.
You have some rather splendid insights in this post, and I rather appreciate your explanation of writing as a creative and emotional outlet. Following this explanation, you go into some extraordinary depth on your plans for life, your appreciations, and some very profound concerns, such as how you are going to make sure that you have truly lived your life to the fullest of its potential. While I find these very eloquently described and full of some very interesting ideas, they seem to stray a bit from the form of response or interpretation. The quote is in reference to a human struggle, primarily that of finding clarity. While you do cover the topic, it seems to get a bit muddied. Perhaps if your thoughts were refined ever so slightly. In all, excellent work, just needs some clarity.
ReplyDeleteYou go have fun in Texas meow.