One Paige at a Time

Imagine: you’re presented with a book, and the contents contain every detail of your life, start to finish. Would you skip to the last chapter, spoiling the ending?

Think on it…

Now, if a time-traveler, woo-woo witch, or even God herself ever happened to have such a scenario available to me, personally, I hope I’d pass.

Life as a human is like a book. We experience chapters of life, and these chunks of time can be defined in some way - age, milestones, people, passions.

These characteristics group life experiences along our personal timelines, creating chapters. Chapters with happy memories, we reminisce on fondly. Yet, at some point, we all experience darker chapters, too. Your book is bound by these memories and moments in time.

Personally, I think compartmentalizing life in this way helps to make it and all its experiences more concrete and tangible.

Literary concepts such as setting, characters, plot, exposition, climax, and resolution are also at play, as they intertwine between the chapters to create a story unique to you.

The setting is your physical location - wherever you are in a given experience: school, home, work, church, cities - you get the idea.

Then, the people involved along the way are characters in your story. And you, a character in theirs.

We experience multiple plot points throughout life. Whether a relationship, schooling, travels, heartbreak or celebration, these experiences all require some form of development. The (sometimes messy) progression of these events is otherwise known as exposition.

Then, there’s the climax, when said events typically come to a head or peak in some way or another, whether peaceful or turbulent, joyful or tragic.

Eventually, after experiencing it all, there is resolution. In this, we find clarity, and sometimes even triumph. However, other instances may result in a different outcome, perhaps left with feelings of confusion or resentment.

In the end, we find some sort of conclusion, and continue on our way.

And oh, the character development!

The way we navigate through our stories, the decisions we make, and the lessons we learn all contribute to our character growth. We’re constantly evolving as humans as a result of our life experiences. I often joke during difficult plot points that I don't need any more trials or life lessons - my character is fully developed, thank you very much!

The experiences we live through our respective storylines mold us into who we will eventually become. Some times our plots bring out the worst in us, potentially writing a villain origin story. On the other end, our storylines help us learn and grow to become more intuitive, educated, kind, patient, selfless, hard-working, and passionate individuals.

Every chapter of my story has given me perspective, shown me new parts of this world, and has helped me grow into the person I am proud to be today. In the good and bad, it’s comforting to know that at the peak of the climax, there’s an evolved version of my character and a resolution ahead.

The beautiful thing about the books of our lives is that we are the authors. While various characters, settings, and experiences shift and influence the storyline, at the end of the day, we are the ones writing our own narrative. As the author, we get to determine our fate.

In this story of life, we're all flipping through one page at a time.