The Plot has been Set, but...

Foreword: I came up with this quote last night int he throes of finding a new quote for my MSN name. The quote actually comes from a conversation I was having with a friend about my book: about how i had the storyline set out but I had yet to actually but the story in words. However, after I came up with the quote, it really spoke out to me. It made me want to write this little essay about the quote. If you're curious, read on. If not, don't. =D Here we go!

The Plot has been Set, but the Story has yet to be Written
This quote speaks to something every human questions at some point in their life: the future. At some point in one's life, everyone questions of wonders about what the future holds. Will there by joy in the future? Will there be pain? Will there be sadness? Will one be married? Will one be sick? It is human nature to be curious about the future; to wonder about what will happen ten years from now. And yet, if we look at every human's life, there are things that will always happen. One is born, one lives, one feels pain, one feels happiness, one faces trials, one dies. The plot of our lives has been written. There are things in life that one will always eventually face. But the story has yet to be written. How one reacts to certain situations? What the outcome will be? How will we die? Who will we love? Who will we hate? Who will love us? Who will hate us?

It is inevitable for one to face trials in their lives. For each person, the trial may be different. For one it may be winning a game. For another, it may be scoring high on a test. And for yet another, it may be summoning the courage to tell someone else their true feelings. Yet despite the face one's trial may take, one must take the trial. This is part of the plot of life. Where the story comes from, is how our trial will occur. When will it occur? How will we react? What will the outcome be? For one's who trial is to win a game, it may be in order to achieve fame and fortune. It may occur during the prime of his youth. He may raise to the occasion and do his very best! And in the end, he may achieve the fame and fortune he strove to accomplish. But his trial could have gone differently. He may instead have been trying to win in order to satisfy his own pride. It may occur late in his life, when one feels the need to feel accomplished. He may hide from the occasion, afraid of the outcome. And in the end, he may lose, because he failed to try. Although the plot has been set. Although we know we must face trials in the future, what has yet to be written. What the story holds for us, does not.

For those who believe in a higher power such as God or Gods, or even simply Fate, there is something to consider. The plot has been written. By who? By the higher power. They have set down the plot that our lives will follow. They gave us life and trials to overcome. And in the end, they will take the life they gave us. With the pen of fate, our storyline has been written. What the higher power fails to do however, is write the story. The pen of fate is limited to a storyline, to a loose plan of our lives. The rest of the story has to be written by us: written by man himself. We have to fill in the holes that a higher power has left for us; that a higher power is unable to write. We write the story of our lives, with our own hands. With every action we take, with every choice we make, we contribute to our own story. We write with the pen of choice.

This whole idea may sound a bit cliche but the idea is true. We choose our own choices and we make our own decisions. Even if our choice or decision is to choose what someone else chooses for us. And we all come across choices and decisions, as small or inconsequential as they may seem, they are choices: part of the plot of life. But how we make those choices, who we may trust to make them for us, what the outcome will be, these our what makes us unique. These are what make our story truly, our story. This is what separates my story from your story. The plot of our lives are all the same. At the core of our lives, the plot has already been set and the plot for all of us are the same. But when we embellish our lives, when we look at all the little things that make us us. Then we can see, that the story has yet to be written. That we are the ones that fill in the holes that destiny has left for us. That while the plot has been set, the story has yet to be written.