The Twenties: Book Intro

Picture this: You. As you are right now. Your running a race. Some of the faces that run along side of you, you know, and some you don’t. But you can’t focus on them, you can only concentrate on you. Your heart is pounding, it’s practically beating out of your chest. Every time your foot hits the floor you feel like you’ll collapse with the next step. Your drenched in sweat. It’s stinging your eyes. Your breathe is wildly out of control. Your praying that the race will soon be over. Then you see it, the finish line. You feel overwhelmed with relief. A smile takes over your face and suddenly like magic the pain begins to suddenly disappear. Now your running faster, just dying to get to that finish line. You can’t wait to get a nice cold Gatorade once you’ve crossed. You hear everyone yelling, applauding and snapping pictures. Everyone is smiling at you, giving you pats on the back. Your now doing a light jog, the finish line is only a few feet away. Your getting closer. Closer. Closer. You did it. You crossed. Everyone around you is cheering and celebrating. Your finally catching your breathe. Your eyes are closed. You never felt more accomplished in your life. You never thought you could actually finish a race but you did. You now see a young boy walking over to hand you your icy cold Gatorade. He hands it to you. The bottle is cold and perspiring. You open the lid and slowly begin to drink. It’s beyond refreshing, your savoring the moment. When you open your eyes the boy says, “Are you ready?” No idea what he’s talking about you respond, “ready for what?”. The boy replies, “The next race. It’s starting right now.”
This is exactly how I felt graduating high school. It felt like I just finished the most exhausting race. A four year long race. Of course the goal of any high school student it to graduate. But how many of us really think beyond the race? I know I didn't. I don’t even think I really cared. I could not see pass the goal of finishing the race. I don’t know why graduation for me equaled freedom, but at the time I thought that’s what graduating represented. Little did I know I was free the entire time. High school is nothing compared to the real world. Six years later, some days I wish I could go back. Were the biggest decision I probably made was to cut class or not. But then I think about the life experiences I’ve endured and where I’m at now I'm life. My unpreparedness took me on a wild roller coaster ride, with many highs and lows I would of never thought of six years ago.