A few days ago, I heard a song that triggered a long lost memory, taking me back to the year 1988. While hiking today, I re-visited that time….
I was seventeen years old, and weeks away from graduating high school. The van was loud with the usual teenage conversations, but I was alone in the back, listening to music with my headphones on.
My friends didn’t notice. It was dark as we were returning from a church youth group activity, something I used to love attending, but lately that was changing. In fact, everything was changing.
I was at a crossroads in my young life, and didn’t know which way to go. I could succumb to the masses and follow the footsteps that everyone around me expected, or I could radically change the system, live my own life, find importance and meaning for me.
As I listened to the song, slowly I saw that the road my life was heading was going in the wrong direction. I knew if listened to my head and heart that I would lose almost everyone around me: friends, family, teachers, guidance, support….yet I did nonetheless.
The one hundred and eighty degree turn didn’t come without heartbreak, sacrifice, and tears. Yet here I am in the year of 2013 with a feeling that it has been the right choice, a road filled with wonder,
searching.
Here I go, again on my own.
