Mary Oliver's Poem 'The Journey'

Old connections will “...tug at your ankles” (Oliver 1) in an attempt to guilt you into staying back, but you shouldn’t feel an obligation to do so. In Mary Oliver's poem, “The Journey”, she speaks of that moment of self realization and taking the first step into a life worth living. The old connections I previously spoke of will make attempts to stop you from pursuing this life, but perseverance and determination will get you far and help you to start living your life.
Correspondingly, when I was accepted into the University of California, Santa Cruz, I almost did not commit to the school even though it had been a school I fairly wanted to attend. This is because I sensed something holding me back. Although I could not physically see what had a hold on me, I could definitely sense a form of guilt weighing me down and hiding within me. Thus, the decision to commit to UCSC, which should have taken me a matter of seconds,
alternatively took days. Thinking of it, I now comprehend that it was the fear of abandoning my loved ones that induced anguish within me and hindered my decision of attending UCSC. Though I was aware of the need to move on, I couldn’t do so without absolutely knowing that my family and friends would be in acceptance with my absence. However, I knew couldn’t stay considering, if I did, there would be no leaving, especially since everyone who stayed in my hometown, a place named Bolinas, almost never left. Locals typically grew old there and they raised their families there, it just a never ending cycle that people often became entangled in. Therefore, I could agree with Eckhart Tolle when he claimed, “It is not uncommon for people to spend their whole life waiting to start living.” This is because I almost became entangled, endlessly waiting to start living, until a friend helped me out of a rut. Thus, this friend helped me realize, the first step towards moving forward is realizing that you are being held back.
Furthermore, the only escape for us locals was through attending a university or a college, not the local one. Now, to be honest, I had been waitlisted to be accepted into UCSC. When I observed this on my portal, I made no move to appeal their decision to better my chances of getting in. This is because my best friends had made the choice to attend the local community college and had been telling me for months that it was a good choice. Therefore, I had put a mediocre amount of effort into my college essays and SAT/ACT scores, thinking I was going to simply be attending a community college. But this was because, as Mary Oliver states in her poem, “The Journey”, “... the voices around [me] kept shouting their bad advice…” (Oliver 1). Although, my best friends were making community college sound good, it absolutely would not have been the most desirable choice for me. This is especially true since they weren’t absolutely the type of people with drive and motivation to move on, they just wanted to stay where they were, trapped in the small town of Bolinas. Moreover, the advice they gave me wasn’t the advice I should have been given and it took just one exceptional friend to realize that, his name was Orie. Orie constantly reminded me of how people can become trapped in Bolinas and that our only escape was through attending a college, not within the county.
Then, one day, Orie asked about my plans for college so, I told him I was recently accepted off the waitlist into UCSC.
Accordingly, he was extremely excited for me, however, I told him that I wasn’t planning on attending. This was the day he lectured me for an hour about moving forward, it was also the day I “...finally knew what [I] had to do, and began…” (Oliver 1), the day I pursued step one of my initiation into UCSC. Due to Ories positive persuasion, I was able to realize that the only thing holding me back was myself, I had created my own obstacles, my own road “...full of fallen branches and stones…” (Oliver 2). Not to mention, the obstacles I had thought were blocking me, my parents and friends, were never the ones hindering me. As a beneficial repercussion of my talk with Orie, I went home and knew what I needed to do. I sat with my parents for a solid two or three hours and talked about my newfound determination to attend UCSC, then, I began the process of committing to the school. Overall, my plans for college changed that
day. Through perseverance and determination, I was able to overcome my mental obstacles and follow through with the life changing decision of moving to Santa Cruz and attending UCSC. Now that I’m at UCSC, I feel as though I have established a “...new voice which [I] slowly recognized as [my] own…” (Oliver 2). By moving away from Bolinas I am no longer held back by it’s stereotypes, since almost no one here knows of them, and I am able to create a new image for myself. Moreover, ever since I moved to Santa Cruz, I feel like an improved person because I have been able to stop myself from waiting to live and have taken the first step into the process of living. Through doing this I feel as though I have saved “...the only life [I] could save…” (Oliver 2), the life that spent eighteen years rotting away, waiting to move on from a tiny community in Bolinas. Now, I have truly taken the plunge into a life worth living.