Pathways

Once we traveled along different pathways, but only a few separate paths. Each of us had a group, to travel with along the path, to stay with, a safety net of friends. As we traveled along our paths, those different ones began to converge. They grew closer together, until two or three joined into one, and soon there were fewer. More time passed and the paths grew closer again. Finally, one day, all our different paths joined into one. One large path, wide enough that each person had a slightly different journey, but still, we all traveled the same path. For a long time we walked this pathway, side by side. As we journeyed, we reached out to each other, and made new friends. We learned more about those around us, and more about ourselves. That journey was one we all knew we must take in life, and one we learned to enjoy taking, together.
Now, that journey is over. Just when we had begun to grow restless of our pathway, we came to a fork in the road. This fork however, split of in seemingly countless different ways, and as we looked down some of the paths, more forks could be seen ahead. We understood that the time had come for us to take our separate journeys. Some, we would have no problem saying a final farewell to. Others, we could hardly imagine life without. As we all stood looking at the separate pathways, voices began to be heard, from those different paths, calling out to each of us. Separately though, meant for one person, or maybe a few. Instead of the seemingly collective ones we once all heard. As the voices came, so did the choices, the decisions, made by each of us as to which path we would take. As we each made a personal decision, we turned to friends, had they made the same ones? Some had, and sadly, some hadn’t. Somehow we all knew when the time would come, when we would have to start down our new paths. We faced the fact that goodbyes had to be made, and began to make them. Some were harder then others, forcing us to linger, just for a time, in the past, when we all journeyed together.
Right now, I linger, looking down the path I know I must take. For me, I my journey does not start yet, and I remain with those of my friends who still have to journey. Yet, I have taken my first steps onto my path. As I look back, on that long, wide, path we all shared together, my thoughts and emotions are so jumbled I can’t yet understand them. I think of memories we all shared on that path, of the time we’ll never return to, of the faces I will never see again, and I feel sad. Then, I turn, and I look ahead of me, to my chosen path. In my mind I see the bright and beautiful landscapes I will pass and explore, and I am filled with excitement. So overwhelming is the confusion, that I sit. On my left, the path I came from, on my right, the path I will soon take. I look from one side to the other, and try to evaluate what is in my heart and head. Wanting only to understand, before I must stand and move forward once again. This time, on the path I have chosen for myself, not one that has been chosen for me.

Source: The summer before I went to college, I had a lot of mixed emotions, and I would write to help myself think.