The assignment in English was to write a short story that was between 700 and 1000 words. The story had to have a character, a scene, a conflict, and a resolution. I chose to write my story about choices in life and how change isn't always the best.
The Path of Life
I once came across a fork in the road. Like all times in life, I had to decide which to take; knowing the choice could change how I went about my life. One way was elegant; trees tall and proud surrounded by soft grass, untouched by human machines other then to make way for the track. Bushes of berries hung carelessly over the side of the path, decorating the walkway with bright colors. The path was intact, its smooth dirt flat and peaceful. The path of poems and dreams, paved by humans but touched by very few wandering feet; the path of peace.
The other path was less elegant, with bits of trash and a well-used, lumpy road pressed down with tire tracks that had once journeyed over it. Sticks and rocks covered the dirt road, left behind by people who had stepped off the track for a moment, then returned, kicking a round rock or a dead stick and leaving it in it's way. Wrappers and cups were scattered lazily along the sides of the path, showing obvious signs of people's existence; the path of business.
Then, with a keen eye, there was a hidden third path, diverging right down the middle of the two. A trail where machines had not cleared the way for people to walk, and yet people walked there regardless. One where the road was plants, crushed by curious human feet. One where trees weren't cut safely out of your distance, and a path wasn't made to protect you from the cruel wilderness within. Dark trees hid the distant forest from untrusting eyes; the path of wandering.
In the far distance I could heart a birdcall, while looking down the other, I could hear the sounds of a town; children yelling and cars sputtering. And in between the two, there was silence.
The path of peace, the path of business, or the path of wandering?
And I turned around and headed back down the path I had come, choosing to accept and take the path of my life.
