The Path through the Jungle of Life

I find it so fascinating in life when I begin to see how the crazy path that has led me to this point in life was actually so well organized.

I feel like I just looked back on my life, on what appeared to be a jungle expedition. I was just whacking away at the mess of green leaf-ness in front of me. I thought I had no direction, but I was following a path that had been set down previously.

And now, looking back at the map of where I've been, where I've explored, I can start to see the little tangents and journeys that have placed me where I am today.

For example, when I was really little, all of my mom's friend's kids that were my age were boys, so generally, my play dates were with boys. I grew up playing with all boys, day after day. I knew that I was different from them, but I learned how to make them accept me. In my formative years, I played with ALL the toys, not just the girly ones. I played with EVERYONE, not just the girls in my class. I grew up knowing that boys were not scary or weird or a different species.

Now, I'm graduating as an engineering major. I am one of three girls in a class of seventy people. But I've never been afraid of that. And I never get sick of it.

Maybe that little thing in my past, playing with boys all the time, helped me prepare for engineering. Or maybe I'm just stretching things too far. But I think that the path to engineering was made easier by the prep work instilled in me earlier in life.

And now, the adventure continues.

My machete is coming around once more, and the forest ahead is thicker and deeper and darker than any I have encountered before. I am terrified of this new adventure, called real life, but I hope the path I am on will continue along that long-planned one that was created for me.

Someday, I hope I will look back at these trees and ponder gladly the path I wove.