My Life is Like A City
My life is like a city. Despite all the sudden challenges and gradual changes that inescapably occur with time, the diverse landscape that is my journey through past, present, and future remains transformative and flexible as much as it retains original character.
Regarding the structure of my life, from barest foundation to the highest supporting beam, the things that keep me grounded are undoubtedly my moral compass and principles that provide me a base from which I build everything else off of. No matter how the style of my buildings or identities of my people may change, the flat soil and bedrock beneath it all remains unwavering in its dedication to providing support for its community above itself, and it is with this same commitment that I strive to serve the just needs of the people around me before my own. From a lifelong commitment to generosity as well as kindness, I would like to say that my deepest held morals are the one thing about my composition that remains unchanging as I’ve navigated life thus far, and it is with these guiding reminders that the rest of my landscape is cultivated.
With respect to the strength and durability of my city, I feel I must be extremely up front and say, honestly, I don’t feel entirely protected from the stressors of life, and I really haven’t even got much of a plan, much less a guarantee that it is going to be “lifelong and enduring”. Try as I might to fend off against the forces that threaten my city, and though my defenses have certainly gotten stronger, the truth is I am not impermeable to all the wild obstacles that the outside world throws at me, and honestly, I don’t really want to be. With each challenge, each time my peace is threatened, I am reminded of how fragile, temporary, and oh so valuable everything around me is, and it is with this frequent stress that I push myself to overcome the things that threaten me, fortifying myself to not be on the defense against the terrifying uncertainties ahead, but the offense as I strengthen and grow. Regarding my “plan”, I have ebbs and flows of ideas, cycles of rising inspiration and falling motivation, deeply-rooted ambitions that I promise myself now I will meet, but I am not afraid to admit that my path ahead is fluid and incredibly vulnerable to change. Not to say that it lacks tenacity or resolve, but to concede that I am not the same person today that I was yesterday, and that I certainly will not be the same person years from now. As opposed to a classic durability founded on rigid structure and immovable course, wherein my city is indestructible to any force that threatens it, I believe my ongoing strength lies within the opposite idea that I can completely rebuild from the ground up if need be, and flexibly react to all the things on my horizon impossible to predict.
Though equally important to structure, the area of my life that has been contrastingly subject to maybe the most change would be the style of my city. Not just the architecture of my buildings, but the infrastructure and layout of my design as it grows and changes as well. As I navigate through different tastes and interests, my buildings take on different forms ranging from vividly bright to dark and subdued, reflecting the variable nature of my physical expression of style through my appearance. Music plays openly throughout the streets of my city as well, reflecting my passion for the art in a wide array of venues for artists of all backgrounds, ranging from street jazz performers to blaring stadiums.
Inside and outside my rows of houses and workplaces, parks and gardens, the element of my cityscape that provides cohesion would be the people that live here. Diverse in background and profession, some permanently here to stay while others come and go, the people of my life are undoubtedly the aspect that tie together even the farthest removed parts of my personality and ambitions. Each person that has affected me symbolizes a moment in time, a unmistakeable part of who I was, am, or will be, and it is the further correspondence of all of these people around me- living proof of the beautiful network I’ve created- that holds me together despite how my other elements may change.
Finally, as for the element that truly gives my landscape movement, dimension, and flow- bringing it to life as a three dimensional hub as opposed to a flat oasis- the vast network of roads and streets throughout my city facilitates direction in whichever way I may choose. Though I retain my Main Street and Central Avenue as my core tenets I aim to travel most, every branching side street and freshly carved alley way serves as an opportunity to see things within my own borders that I never even knew were there, and it is with this endless combination of routes that I seek to keep driving, past my borders, and into countrysides and woodlands unimaginable. Sometimes, my internal streets swarm with vehicles filled by the people that populate my space, occasionally forcing me to slow down on my journey and remain still in the traffic alongside them. This can be frustrating in the moments that I feel I’m running late to my destination, but I recognize the ultimate benefit in its keeping me from speeding before I even know where I am going, and its forcing me to live in every moment of the journey. Other times, my roads are empty, and it seems that I have all the time in the world to go as far as I want as fast as I can, knowing that my vehicle will safely take me all the way home and back again.