Closing Cycles

"Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters…whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the memories of life that have finished.

You can spend a lifetime wondering why all this happened.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved - your parents, spouse, friends, children, siblings - everyone will be finishing chapters, turning new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and in the past at the same time. Not even when we try to understand the things that happened to us.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them.

Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back.

Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into what you are."

--Paulo Coehlo.

Better luck next time.

"There are two kinds of sufferers in this world: those who suffer from a lack of life, and those who suffer from an over-abundance of life."

I feel as though I'm part of the latter. I know that I'm still only in the first inning in this game called Life (I'm only eighteen, for crying out loud), but it already seems as though the world has thrown too many fast balls for me to handle. It would be so easy for me to just call it quits now, but the game must go on, 'cause I'm not the only player on this team. I guess you could just say that for now I've struck out, and am on the bench. At this point, I'm afraid. I'm afraid of getting back out there, and I'm afraid that I'll strike out once more. I'm afraid of losing and letting the rest of the team down.

Then again, it is only the first inning. For now all I can do is relax, recharge, and wait for my next turn to step up to the plate. Who knows? I might just hit a home run next time.


So while I'm sitting on this bench, I've been going insane trying to figure out my strategy for my next move. I consulted with a career aptitude test, and here are my results:

1. CINEMATOGRAPHY / FILM / VIDEO

2. URBAN STUDIES

3. ART (e.g. painting drawing and sculpture)

4. FOREIGN LANGUAGES

5. DENTISTRY

6. SPEECH - DEBATE and FORENSICS

7. LINGUISTICS - study of the nature, structure, and variation of language.

8. WHOLESALE TRADE SALES WORKERS

9. COMMERCIAL ART

10. FINE ARTS

11. EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWERS

12. RELIGION

13. UNDERWRITERS - A person or firm engaged in the insurance business.

14. SOCIAL SCIENCES

15. INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

16. ARCHITECTURE (pre-architecture) - trained in the art and science of building design

17. GRAPHIC DESIGN

18. ART HISTORY AND APPRECIATION

19. POLITICIAL SCIENCE / GOVERNMENT

20. GRAPHIC AND PRINTING COMMUNICATIONS

21. DESIGN

22. MARKETING AND DISTRIBUTION

23. OPTOMETRY (pre-optometry) - One who is trained and licensed to examine the eyes for visual defects.

24. FOOD AND BEVERAGE SERVICE OCCUPATIONS

25. SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

26. GERMAN LANGUAGE

27. Cooks and other Kitchen Workers

28. MANAGEMENT ANALYSTS and CONSULTANTS

29. MANUFACTURERS' SALES WORKERS

30. PHILOSOPHY - Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self-discipline.

31. ART EDUCATION

32. THEOLOGY - the rational and systematic study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truth

33. AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES

34. BUILDING CONSTRUCTION / CONSTRUCTION SCIENCE

35. ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

36. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

37. COMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS TECH.

38. LIBERAL / GENERAL STUDIES

39. COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FACULTY

40. ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN