Teen Scribes...
Discussing the ‘F’ Word
By Naiesha Thobe 

“The smallest, most inconsequential happening can change your life forever.” 

In today’s day of age, it’s difficult to know what people are thinking. There are a countless number of people who blunder through life without knowing what they’re doing or where they’re going. They stumble around like lost little kittens, circling in the same spot because they’re afraid of their own shadow. That being said, there are people who are determined to have everything, everything, right down to the last straw. They work hard to get it. There’s yet another group of people who believe that a chunk of their life is controlled by a higher power or an unseen force and that they cannot argue against it. Those people are the ones who just go with the flow. Every single person has their own opinion on life. 

Think back. When was the last time something happened to you? Did you get lost in the big city? Did you find a five dollar bill on the sidewalk? Look at it in two different points of view. Did you get lost because you failed to read the map correctly, because you failed to plan ahead? Was it a personal error, a failure on your part, that put you there? Or could it have been Destiny? Could it be Fate that you were supposed to meet that one person who gave you directions? Was that the reason that you had, inevitably, gotten lost? A five dollar bill on the sidewalk means someone was careless. Pick it up and continue walking. Or could it be that finding a five dollar bill was good karma for donating money to charity last week? What view do you pick? It gets all skewed, personal choice, when religion is factored in. Nonetheless, discussion about religion isn’t an argument that will be solved anytime soon, so there’s no need to touch bases with that now. 

As I started out this editorial, I mentioned that every person has an opinion. Seeing as how this is an editorial, and I am a functional human being, I have my own opinion as well. I certainly don’t claim to be a lost little kitten in the prime of my life nowadays. Before you say it, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, I’m eighteen. Yes, I know everything about the world. Yes, I know everything about myself. No. No, no, no. The only statement out of those three that is actually true is the fact that I’m eighteen. I don’t claim to know everything about myself, let alone the world. I’d like to think that I know a good deal, and I do know that I know a bit about some things, but no, I am not an all-exclusive genius. Darn. Because the world needs one of those, right? 

Don’t look at me. I do not want to become that person. Think of how pompous that person would be! Yeesh! At the same time, I can firmly say that I have a plan for life in the future. I’m working towards it everyday. That’s all I can do; that’s all anybody can do, eighteen or not. I’m not blundering, well, not much, and I have a goal. However... it’s not all me. I can work towards it, but I’m not the only influence. See, I’m one of those people who believes in Fate and Destiny and Karma. I can see how other people don’t believe in it, if I’m taking a very non-ethnocentric view on it, but that’s not me. I believe things happen for a reason. No matter how much something hurts or how happy something is, it was meant for us. That’s my belief. 

That said, let me continue on with my spiel here. I’m feeling sentimental. I just graduated. I had my graduation party today. It was weird, trust me. But that’s a whole different story. How does this all tie together? Sentiment, Fate, me? Simply put: friends. I don’t like signaling friends out when I’m writing to people, but I know this person, if not a few other people, will recognize who I’m talking about. That’s okay. He can remain entirely anonymous except to us who will recognize the story. (Before you ask - no, ‘he’ does not mean ‘boyfriend’, so squash those thoughts.) It’s really odd, when you think about it, how the simplest of things can snowball into something much larger. My story is dull and eventually started with something from school. In the end, though? I got lost on the west side of Dayton. I still really don’t know the significance, or why people go “Oh my gosh, you were on Gettysburg Avenue?” and when I gauge their reaction, I realize I don’t want to know and I’ll just go on my merry way, thank you very much. But, it’s overall a dull story. 

School set up set shadowing. I get lost in Dayton. Mentor gets me un-lost. Congratulations, Naiesha, you are not suitable for Dayton territory; please try your luck again next year. Yeah, big deal, asides from the west side of Dayton bit. But, really, it really, really was a big deal and I promise that I never knew how much of big deal it was actually going to be. I realized just how big of deal it was tonight. (Actually, it would be last night now; it’s almost two a.m. as I type this particular paragraph, because I want to write this here and now.) 

One phone call. Fifteen minutes and a map and a very patient person. Directions. Directions to find a particular building in Dayton. That was all it took. 

I think, and I may be wrong, but I think when a student shadows a mentor, it’s a ‘Hi, I’m Blah Blah and I’m your shadow today, to watch you blah blah blah’ before it’s all over. It probably is, because that’s how another one of my shadows went; it was a wonderful shadow but I haven’t talked to the person since. What do I expect, though? I mean, really. It’s funny how little things, like getting lost, change that. My friend, oh, let’s call him...’Luke’, shall we?, directed us to where we were supposed to be and I mean, come on! I ended up on the wrong side of Dayton, the bad part of Dayton, before my shadowing had even began! I should have known it was going to be a bit different. Like I said, I never noticed the significance. Anyhow, ‘Luke’ got my family and me to his workplace, treating us with every polite courtesy. I don’t know, I think if I had just had to direct my shadow, who was by far way late, I probably would have been a bit annoyed, but that’s me. And it was just wonderful. I know I blathered on about my mentorship experiences so much to so many people, so I’ll save the spazz story. But getting lost in Dayton was worth it. Being late was worth it. ‘Luke’ and I didn’t pull the ‘Hi! Goodbye!’ routine, because it obviously wasn’t all nerves and business and strictly ‘shut up and watch or ask questions’. And, because I keep using the ‘f’ word here (and not THAT ‘f’ word, geesh), it’s obvious that I think of ‘Luke’ as not only my mentor, but my friend. 

And I think it Fate. Because how else could I end up becoming close to someone who a) lives sixty-five miles away, b) has no connection to Greenville at all, really, and c) wasn’t even supposed to be my mentor. Oh yeah, I didn’t mention that. ‘Luke’s job shadow experience was supposed to go to another student; that other student backed out and I took the spot. There’s that instance and there’s the instance that if it weren’t for my getting lost... Well, who knows where we would be. Would it have been just another Mentor-Shadow experience? Oh, it’s all guesswork, but I’d like to think that Fate played a part in... bringing us... together... Oh man, that sounds so tacky; go ahead and laugh! I’m a writer; I’m destined to be cheesy! (Haha.) But, up until the party today, in which ‘Luke’ drove those sixty-five miles just to celebrate with a student that he met once, I was oblivious. And then I noticed our interactions and our conversations and everything. And I realized, oh my gosh, I have a really awesome person in my life now. Who knows if that would have happened, if things had happened any other way. 

So, my point, and I do have one rather than just babbling on about friendship (even though that is a good thing to babble on about). Even if you don’t believe in Fate or an elusive uncontrollable force, just don’t overlook the small things in Life. The smallest, most inconsequential happening can change your life forever, whether it’s for better or for worse. Just keep that in mind because, who knows, you may experience one of these mind-stopping ‘aha!’ moments one day, too.