On Growing Up

10.2.06

When do we grow up? Is there a moment in time where we all of a sudden are able to call ourselves adults? If so, when? And how? Is there really a defining moment in our lives when everything changes and we become who we are? You know, like when Michael Corleone shot that cop point blank and became the Godfather or when Anakin took that final step into the dark side to become Darth Vader?

Sure, it’s easy to say that this sort of thing only happens in movies and I shouldn’t look into it too much. Well, lets assume for one moment that it doesn’t happen in just movies. Sure, Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t just become who he is after one dream, and Michael Jordan didn’t become Michael Jordan after his first buzzer beater at North Carolina. These legends didn’t become legendary overnight, and nobody really does—including characters in movies. It seemed as though it was their fate to become the people they became. Despite all kinds of forces, which pushed them into different directions, (Michael Corleone to a leading a straight life, Anakin to the Light Side, MLK to accept his oppression, Jordan not making his high school basketball team) they overcame their plight and reached their destiny. Is everything that happens in our life prior to that moment a set up for our true destiny? Does everyone have such a pre-destined fate that is undeniable no matter what surrounds us? Or is it reserved for those special ones? The ones whose destiny is to alter the fate of the world around them? Is the world put in the hands of these precious few? Am I one? If so, who am I? Corleone, Vader, King Jr., or Jordan? I am none of them and I am all of them.

All the choices I have made are leading up to something, that moment when I become who I really am. Is that what this road trip is all about? Or is it just a set up? Either way, it’s in fate’s hands.

-Ray