It can be scary, but it can also be great

During our class on monday, I realized just how far I've come in life and how far I still have to go. We were taken out onto the football field and told to stand on the yard line that represents our age. As I gazed down to the goal line, it didn't look that far away, but as I gazed forward, I saw just how far I still have to go. Being a 17 year-old, I feel like I'm old and I feel like I've already accomplished a lot, but after seeing how many more yards I still have to go, I realize that I have so much more to offer the world and I'm not even close to where I will be in the future.

In Siddartha, Siddartha has come to feel trapped at his yard-line. His mind and curiosity represents that of an older yard-line and not the one he is currently at. So he decides to embark on a journey of independence on his own. Siddartha is a lot like high school seniors in a sense that they want to go out into the real world and separate from their parents in order to gain a sense of how the real world works. There's only so much that teachers, parents and books can teach us. There comes a point in everyone's life where it's time for them to go and experience the real world first-hand. Living at the 17 and 18 yard-line is safe, not much can happen to you there. But as you go forward, the chances of something happening increase significantly. It can be success or it can be failure, but it's from those experiences that you learn how life in the real-world works. Everyone needs to take that step forward at some point in their life. Physically you don't have a choice because age is something you cannot control. No matter what you do, every year you will move one yard forward. Mentally, though, it is something you can control. Not everyone's mental yard-line represents their physical yard-line. At some point in life, though, everyone needs to take that mental one yard step forward and into the life of independence where anything can happen. It can be scary, but it can also be great.

After living through just about 1/4 of my life, it's time for me to go out into the world on my own and to experience the real-world and college life, independently. I'm standing on the 17 yard line, almost at the 18 yard line ready to make the leap forward into the world of independence.