"Tell me, what it is you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?"
- Mary Oliver
I have recently read a book called Golden by Jessi Kirby. Just like its name, the book is golden! The book had me thinking about the quote above. I realized everyone is so focused, practical and bent on achieving the same things: Getting good grades, going to a renowned university, find a stable job, find a partner, one day get married and have children. But... What is the point of all these? Have we forgotten all about ourselves? What do we really want to do? Who do we really want to be? Would we one day, look back and ten years from now on regret, not doing things we should have done when we were just innocent and mindless souls. Every choice we choose to make, every path we choose to take seems to be very much entwined with so many other people's. Have we done the right thing? or Have we done the wrong thing? Life is like a crossroad... what lies ahead is mysterious and full of doubts. It's like braving yourself to plunge into a pit of darkness, unaware of what might be there for you. It could be good or it could be bad. We can never know.
If we had made a different choice or took a different path to take...would we be proud of ourselves or be in constant reproach about how we were given choices and regretfully chose the wrong one. With my one wild and precious life, I will choose to take my life one step at a time. But I know that in my head up above and with my heart pounding rapidly, I know I will live a life I would have never imagined or expected for there is so many wonders in the world for me to explore and visit, people I want to see and do things I have never dared to. But all these crazy and ballsy thoughts will have to wait until I am old enough to make good of my words. Last quote to share:
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on."
-Robert Frost
Robert Frost appeared a couple times in the story for he was a distant relative of the character who shares the same last name so I thought I might like to share some of his poems. I went through one of them during my literature lesson in school.
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
"Life is made of moments, and choices. Not all of them matter or have any lasting impact. Skipping classes in favor of a taste of freedom, picking a prom dress because of the way it transform you into a princess in the mirror. Even the nights you steal away from an open window, tiptop silent to the end of the driveway, where darkened headlights and the pull of something unknown beckons. These are all small choices,really. Insignificant as soon as they're made. Innocent. But then. Then there's a different kind of moment. One when things are irrevocably changed by a choice we make. A moment we play endlessly in our minds on lonely nights and empty days. One we'll search repeatedly for some indication that what we chose was right, some small signs that tells us the truth isn't nearly as awful as it feels. Or as awful as anyone would think if they knew. So we explain it to ourselves, justify it enough to sleep. And then we bury it deep, so deep we can almost pretend it never happened. But as much as we wish it were different, the truth is, our world are sometimes balanced on choices we make and secrets we keep."
-Golden
Life is golden like a glimmering star in that vast dark sky...
