Possibilities

I love to people watch. I don't know if that's creepy, but I love it either way. My favorite place to people watch is Wal-Mart because everyone goes to Wal-Mart. It's not just the high school kids, or my righteous ward members, it's all sorts of people who have made all sorts of choices and ended up all sorts of places. That's the scary thing. These people ended up where they are because they made a bunch of daily choices that eventually landed them where they are. The really scary thing is that at one point, they were all just like me, your average slacker-overachiever high school kid.

One day, I will be one of those Wal-Mart shoppers that has tons of choices behind them. I could be like the guy that you think is talking to himself until you realize that he's using a Bluetooth because he's always working. I could end up being that mom screaming at her kids in the middle of the aisle. I could be that woman on the scooter because she's too large to walk. I may end up like most Wal-Mart shoppers, quiet and exhausted. Truth be told, I don't want to be any of them. They all look so miserable, and it makes me miserable.

I refuse. I refuse to blend into the background. I learned a great lesson this past month from a great man that you can be filled with energy even if you've been taking 48 teenagers across the country on about 5 hours of sleep a night for 19 days. No matter if you're 62 and logically you should be dead on the ground, the biggest smile ever can constantly grace your face, you can have enough energy to make everyone around you know that they are important people, including the lady who takes your order at McDonald's. It's possible if you've got the Lord on your side. If you're working your fingers to the bone in a righteous endeavor and you pray to be able to continue to do so, you'll make it, and you'll make it with overflowing happiness. Anything is possible, it's even possible to enjoy the journey.

I currently stand at a fork in the road with a huge web of paths before me. At the end of one stands the businessman, another ends in the mom whose patience has run out, another stops at the feet of the woman who can't see her feet. Countless others end in so many people who have ended up so differently, and I have to choose which to follow. I've decided that I don't want to follow any of them, they're not me. I'm going to push harder and climb the mountain that they all stopped at the bottom of. That, my friends, is the mountain of eternal happiness, which can only be reached with the constant aide of our Lord. One day I will stand at the top of that mountain and my body may be exhausted, but my mind will be invigorated. I will join all of my family who also realized that the top of the mountain is where they want to be and let our Heavenly Father know it in action and desire.

I will stand on top of that mountain, smiling, flanked by those that I have helped up. I may be covered in dirt and sweat, it may not be glamorous, I may have to take a path that I never imagined, but I will reach the summit. I refuse to stand at the bottom and admire the beauty of the mountain, for there is so much more beauty to be seen from the top.

I refuse to conform, I refuse to blend into the background. I will be my own person and forge my own trail. Bring it on.