Forks In The Path Of Life/essay - Writers Forum

Padgeman · 04-11-2005, 09:35 PM

Forks In The Path Of Life

There are different paths that open up to you throughout your life. Sometimes you follow them without realizing that you are following them. Other times you see the fork in the path right in front of your face.

I can think of a couple of time that the fork was obvious to me. Most of the time the path I followed really was not the correct one to take, but I followed them without realizing I could make the choice to turn down a different path. Here are a couple of examples when the choice was mine.

I was 32 and working at a nowhere job for 13 years. A coworker challenged me to go back to school and I changed my direction I was heading and went down the fork towards an education. At 32 I received my GED and started attending the local community college. Sometimes it is not always that easy though. Even after I took the turn that led me to an education I still took a few detours before I got on the right track.

9/11 was another turning point in my life. That is when I brought the Lord into my life. Before 9/11, I had been attending a small local church mainly I thought that it would be good for my boys (my 2 sons are probably the best thing that ever happened to me, but that is another story). I started listening to the pastor and his messages. Then the Twin Towers came down and frankly I was scared. The following Sunday there were several people who where scheduled for their baptism. At the end of the pastors message that day we prayed and he asked if their where anyone else who wanted to become baptized to simply look up at him, I looked up and my eyes made contact with him and I turned down the path led me closer to the Lord. I knew that was the right path to take. I am trying to stay on that path every day of my life, and yes there have been and always will be detours that this path will take.

There are usually two directions you can go, one way will lead you down the road that you are familiar with, the other could be uncharted territory. That is how I feel at this point in my life.

The familiar is not where I want to go any longer. That path has been, for the most part, not very enjoyable. Of course there have been good times, but is the bad times that have been eating away at me. That is what makes the unfamiliar path seem more favorable, but a little scary too. I will face this new path that will lead me to new challenges and adventures, and probably some detours as well, with an open mind. I must keep my eyes opened to see where the new paths will lead me.

When you are young the paths are pretty much dictated by your parents or guardians. As you get older the paths are your decisions. You need to keep your eyes open and see these forks as they appear before you. Some will be obvious to you and you will know the right fork to follow. Some won’t be so obvious though and you maybe following it right now without realizing it. If you find yourself on one of these paths that you don’t like turn and follow a different one. If you find you are on a path that looks like it is the best one for you follow it and attack it, make it work for you, and when you find yourself on one of those detours, recognize it and get back on track. Remember the choice is yours.

padgeman
04/10/05

TheUberManlyMan · 04-11-2005, 11:58 PM

I thought that this essay had a great message, and it's one of those things that we just can't get told enough times. Sometimes people who write essays like this do it more for the message and not necessarily as a writing focus. But here's some critique on the writing in case you care:

I felt that a lot of this was choppy. It seemed to follow the format of "here is what happened, here is what i was going through, this is what you need to know." This hard for me to describe, but try to imbed these things into a more cohesive block of writing. For example, I think that if the first two paragraphs were incorporated into the rest of the piece instead of right at the beginning, it would flow better right from the start. Basically, if you write it more like a story, I think more people will be interested.

I think that the paragraph about 9/11 and your religious experiences was written the best. That's probably because you were actually telling a story, instead of "preaching," for lack of a better term. The themese of your story are great, and you could really write this in a lot of different ways and still make it work. It just depends on what you want this to mean to you and others.