My name’s Selina, and I’m 17 years old. I’d like to say that I’m an adventurous person, but others like to call me reckless. I don’t see how my actions are reckless, but maybe that’s the reckless part about it. Here’s an example, I’ll let you guys decide. This weekend I volunteered at a local community center for underprivileged children. We took them to a farm in New Jersey where they would be able to partake in a multitude of activities, including a corn maze. Yes, a corn maze is exactly what it sounds like: a maze of corn. The maze was only supposed to take half an hour, but with my fantastic navigational skills it took a bit longer.
Vowing to the other volunteers that me and my group of kids would be the first ones out I ventured out through the maze. After about an hour I got tired of walking in circles, so I had a brilliant idea: If I cut through the corn and keep going straight, I’m bound to find the end. Oh how wrong I was.
Now before we were let into the maze the workers warned us about 5 times not to let the kids get off the path and through the corn. So I led the kids off the path and through the corn. The kids told me that was wrong, but I assured them that I knew exactly where I was going.
That’s when things got bad. About 10 minutes in I realized that I was lost. The corn stood about 5 feet taller than me was so thick that I couldn’t see anything besides massive amounts of yellow and brown. So I panicked, I had absolutely no idea where to go. The kids on the other hand, were pissed.
As I trudged through the corn for about 3 hours with 8 kids basically cursing me out I began to think “How did I get myself into such a tangled mess?” Then I realized that this maze of corn was an exact representation of my life, a tangled mess with no way out. An ongoing maze that led nowhere. What if all the “adventurous” decisions I make are just screwing me over? What if I’m leading a path of destruction and there’s really no hope for me? Just as I was about to restructure my entire life something amazing happened, I broke out of the corn.
A dirt path cut out a field of corn put me on cloud nine. A conspicuous sign carved into the side of a tree told me that if I took every right turn then I’d find my way out. Me being the one that always follows the advice of strangers did just that and found almost civilization in about 10 minutes.
So now I’m sick from the cold, and probably kicked out of that volunteering organization, but if I had a do over I’d probably do the same thing. If I stayed on the well traveled path I probably would have won, but I would never have had such a great adventure. Life’s a tangled mess, but what’s the point if you don’t get lost in it sometimes?