The Spoons in the Road

 

Sometimes the best thing is to stop talking and step back from the situation. That is why, even though I had this thought in my head for awhile, I needed to step outside of the situation and give myself enough emotional space before I wrote about this.

During the months of March and mid April, I felt pressure from my university and from society. The pressure was to either go to grad school after I graduate or to get a full time job. It felt like society was pointing at the fork in the road and telling me, “Ok Julia, here’s the fork in the road. Which of these two paths will you choose?” Well I’m not going to grad school or getting a job after I graduate, I’m going to be doing a year of service. Unfortunately, a year of service was not a path the fork in the road pointed towards. I did not choose the fork in the road; I chose the spoon in the road. The spoon that points to a third option that nobody can see.

To be totally honest, I felt like I was doing something wrong because I chose the spoon in the road instead of the fork. Recently, I realized that I’m not the only one choosing the spoon in the road. Several people (in my case college grads) might choose their own spoon in the road for several reasons. They might decide to travel before getting a job (jealous!); they might have a family member who is sick and requires them to stay home (I sure hope not) or some other third thing that I cannot see at the time. But the reason why I cannot see the “some other third thing” is because the spoon in the road is their spoon in the road, not my spoon in the road. The fork in the road is visible to everyone, so it becomes the norm. But for the spoon in the road, since it is invisible, the path is only visible to the people who need to walk down their own path. I am the only person that can see and walk down my spoon in the road. The fork and the spoon are not unequal to one another, but simply different paths (this took me forever to realize.)  

I was reminded of this when I saw this quote pop up on my phone the other day. I have a quote app that pops up a happy little quote of the day (and I seriously recommend it for anybody seeking some more positivity in their life) So I have no idea who Mary Dunbar (Google was inconsistent in their answers, so if you know comment below), but I believe there is much wisdom in this quote relating to why I choose to serve as a YAV starting in August. We all have to discover our inner light, our own path, and for me part of discovering (or polishing) my inner self is to serve as a YAV. Part of discovering our inner light is to be able to walk down the spoons in the road. The spoons in the road are invisible for a reason. They only appear visible to the people who need to walk down that certain path. They are only visible when our hearts and spirits have something to learn and we cannot learn that something by walking down everybody else’s fork in the road, but only by walking down our own spoon in the road.

And I believe those spoons go by many names depending on different cultures. My spoon can be called my spiritual journey.