Thresholds

Every once in a great while in our lives we can be found standing on a threshold. Thresholds are a funny thing actually. You can stand in them, wander around before them, or go to and fro from them for as long as you wish. However, once you cross them there is no turning back. You have to stay on the other side until another threshold comes around. The problem with crossing a threshold though is that, most of the time, you don’t have any real authority over the decision. You forge ahead and then suddenly realize, you’re on the other side.

Right now, in my life, I am wandering around before a threshold. I have three months until I graduate from college. After that I plan on moving to Chicago with every other plan still lingering above me, undetermined. Yet, more than surprisingly, I have found myself calm. I would even go so far as to say calm and confident.

Thresholds though do not just come about in our individual lives; they can come about everywhere in our world. In fact those of us living in the United States are standing before one right now. With our economy and American dreams in despair, and young new President in tow, what lies on the other side of the threshold is more than unclear.

Like I already mentioned though, we have little power of decision in when we cross. The time just comes when we have to move ahead. When we do though we should go with a bit of a swagger to our step. For once we are on the other side, even though we can never go back and didn't have a choice about leaving, we are free to make all the choices we need to make. Some of them will be successful, and others will not. However, if we use all of the knowledge we have been entrusted with from our past, all of these choices, no matter their outcome, can only make us more complete.
So no, I have absolutely no idea what awaits me on the other side, nor do I have any idea what awaits our country. Truth be told, I have never had too much of an idea what was to become of the thresholds I have already crossed in my life. I would go out on a limb to say most Americans never had much of an idea what was in store for our country either. What I do know is, for the most part, things turn out pretty well, sometimes even better.

It seems then the only thing to do is: trust, learn, act, repeat.