Silent Battles and Solitary Victories

Silent Battles and Solitary Victories

Inspired by I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

       The next chapter, the cross roads, the beginning to our story, or the golden years: pick any cliche you please, but college is more than just a time of carefree partying. It is a time of endless possiblities where even the most outrageous of aspirations does not seem as untangible as previously thought. It is a time where you can become the person you've always wanted to be, but for some reason never truly became. But obtaining these desires is easier said than done, this time, although full of possiblity, is filled with confusion. In a quest for our desires, we become lost along the way, and the path to our destiny is not as clear as a straight line. Possiblity and confusion isn't a great combo, and it's equation, one plus the other, equals something not so positive-doubt. How are we supposed to overcome the obstacles that life lays at our feet?

I found my answer through the story of a Maya Angelou.

Angelou's memoir is as unpredictable and intruging as any best selling novel, so much so that it's difficult to believe it's a true story. Throughout the book, the reader is aware of Maya's ending, success and acheivement, but after reading her story it's baffilng to believe that the Maya at the end of the memoir and the modern Maya are one of the same. Sure, everyone has the possiblity for success, but her obstacles were large in severity and quantity. Abandonment, racism, rape, homelessness, The Great Depression, stabbing, divorce, World War Two, and eventually her teen pregnancey: are all obstacles that alone would ruin someone's life.  Here I was, a college student just trying to get my legs in this world and seventeen year old Maya Angelou was bringing someone into the world.  How did she overcome her obstacles? Climb her mountains?

 And so began my quest for the truth.

 Skimming through the chapters turned into re-reading the pages which then turned into analyzing paragraphs which morphed into disecting sentences, I was ravinous for the truh. By the time my book was torn to shreds, I had found nothing. There was no secret, no cure all method to solving life's problems. Infact, it seemed as if she sometimes didn't overcome her obstacles at all. She just kept moving forward. Orginally, the discovery left me rather disappointed, but disappointment quickly faded into an epiphany. She did overcome her obstacles, but she did not destroy them, and none were the grand declerations of accomplishment I envisioned. Sparkling confetti did not fall from the sky, trumpets ceased to sound in fan fair, and no one congradulated her on climbing mountain after mountain. The only one who knew of Maya's accomplishments, was Maya.

Each time she overcame the barriers thrown into her path, she kept walking right up to the next obstacle, then would climb over it and proceed to march. Nothing laid on the otherside of the barrier to congradulate her, except a long endless road of possiblity, and unfortuantley, more barriers.  Discouragement after discouragement did she face, yet she kept trodding on in her unwavering march. The way she lived her life was the answer I was searching for. Overcoming your obstacles does not mean recieving anything in return for overcoming them. It means the chance for more possiblity. If we stop and refuse to climb, we are only hurting ourselves. We are not allowing ourselves the possiblity of a chance. We are freezing life and accepting it as is, instead of moving on to the possiblities life has in store for us. To overcome an obstacle does not mean to destroy it, but climb over it and keep marching.

College is a time of endless possiblities and barriers lying every where we turn. We don't know what is beyond those barriers, but we do know that if we stay stationary, we are denying ourselves the opprotunity of life, more barriers, and chance. Our aspirations are ours for the taking, if we dare pursue them, and the person we aspire to be already exists inside. It is our duty to let them lead the way, down the path, over barrier after barrier. Life is a journey filled with silent battles in which are victories are solitary celebrations, but what happens along the way, and the possiblity of someting more, are the reasons why we keep marching into battle.