Choosing a Path, Where to go From here?

From a very young age there are things most parents say to their children, those cookie cutter motivational phrases that bolster your confidence in yourself and the world around you.

" you can do anything if you put your mind to it" or "It's better to try and fail than to not try at all"

Shouldn't we be thankful that our caregivers took the time out to lift our spirits? When we thought our little 7 year old legs couldn't climb that tall ladder or ride without training wheels.

Though we did not know it, those lessons were allegories for our future.

From grades 0-12 you're life is pretty much mapped out for you. You have an allotted time to eat, you have to raise your hand to go to the bathroom, if you miss class your parents are called. Your core curriculum is scheduled for you, they even told you what you could and could not wear. Then comes college, all of those predestined pieces of your life fall away. Only for you to be given the reigns.

You have been treading in shallow water from ages 5 to 17 you have been slowly making your way out to sea. Never so much that you didn't know you could keep your head above water. College comes and the bottom gives all you see is dark blue beneath your churning feet. You're forced to choose a path that will define the next 4 years of your life.

What's your Major?

Who is prepared for a decision so vital? to choose the course of your life when just this time last year you had to raise your hand to go to the bathroom and you couldn't wear skirts that rise above your knee.

Thankfully college doesn't totally leave you to the sharks, they give you a safe haven surrounding you with students just like you. They give resources to talk to counselors and advisors to help you find the best path for you. Whew.

Now that you've learned to navigate the waters of adolescence, you have dived down in those deep waters only to find out they are not so scary after all. Plus you have people around you that are exploring and learning too.

What a nice thought. Its senior year now you own those waters, you're like a damn mermaid.

Next stop graduation.

Let's hope you've been pushing yourself past this now comfortable blue blanket of sea. To the black trench that is adulthood. But why would you?

Graduation has passed and you have been thrust out into the rough rolling waves. Below you sits the mariana trench. It's so deep you have no hope of surviving long enough to reach the bottom.

Now those words your parents told you creep back into your mind. Those words of encouragement meant for a child with a scraped knee, now more relevant than ever. Your life's journey disguised in an endless sea. The only way to discover it, is to swim.