Life is a very interesting thing. We don’t know what’s truly ahead of us, yet we prepare and make way for what’s in store for us based on mere assumptions and intuition. We also have our dreams to guide us to make our desires that much more realistic. If there has ever been anything to really give us that extra push, it’s the thought of the what’s in store for us within our immediate future: the next chapter. Life is like a book and with each of our defining turning points within our lives, they make up a chapter we live out to experience, preserve, and tell. The next chapter has always been one of mystery and curiosity. What awaits us? What will happen when we cross the threshold of the future and it shapes into the present? What lies beyond that horizon? It’s not easy to determine these things until we turn the page and start looking into the next chapter for ourselves.

This feeling, I’ve experienced only a handful of times. The first time I can recall was when I began elementary school in a new neighborhood. I honestly didn’t know what to expect but I felt I would be in good hands one way or another. I ended up making wonderful friends I still carry with me to this day and I established a place I could always call home. I also gained my first grip of what the world truly is.

When I moved to the neighboring city of Shreveport, I began my next chapter as I had to start over and make new friends, pursue a higher level of education, and utilize everything I learned during my previous years to survive and grow. In the end, I made more friends, gained a better understanding of myself, and began the process of growing into my own. It didn’t come without hardship as I reached a low point in my life due to the problems that seemed to plague my family internally. Despite how hard it was, it made me appreciate life and everything it provided me even more.

The next chapter would be my high school years. This chapter would explain how I rose to the occasion of creating and cementing my identity and to escape from the shadow of my older brother. Within this chapter, I would discover the essences of love and pain. I also understood the importance of leaving behind a legacy, a concept I would carry with to this day.

The college years would be divided into many chapters, the first being the entry and my decision to live on my own. I learned the true value of independence. It also showed me the darker sides of me and how easy it could be to fall influence under those desires. It also showed me true love and the pain the comes with heartbreak. Personal development would truly be the theme of this chapter.

The next chapter came with the transferring of schools as I would have to recreate a new foundation within the education system and my social peers. I had to move back home in order to rebuild, reexamine and start over to become something better than before. I would end up joining a fraternity and would work to rise within the ranks and leave behind a legacy of change and progression. I would end up taking on more responsibilities and meeting every challenge that came my way. And I feel this chapter is beginning to close as I moved out on my own once again and have begun the final stages of my collegiate career.

What happens next? This I cannot say with certainty but can envision based on mere assumption. With each chapter closing and a new chapter beginning, I didn’t know that things would turn out the way they did. I had no idea that I would be in this position at this given time in my life. And there a certainly many things I would like to have done differently. But the more I think about it, the more I’ve come to realize that the book of my life has been written wonderfully due to these experiences and the only way to really make it better is when I write the sequel: the story of my child.

For now, I shall continue writing the pages of my life and as I reach the next chapter, I head there with great anticipation of what’s to come.