While taking a spontaneous bus ride to the Boston area this past Saturday I found myself in a place that I did not quite enjoy. Numbness had taken over my entire body and mind and I was not as truly happy as I know I should be in my life. With this being said, I found myself staring out the window in a state completely opposite of what I would call blissful. I was surrounded by 40 or so people of whom I’d never met before; the woman in front of me was snoring relentlessly and the man across the aisle was one of about 25 with giant orange Ray Ban sunglasses who sat hugging his skateboard and talking with his “bro” over the phone. I began to think about my life and what was truly important to me. I didn’t notice at first but realized after just a few minutes that I had been intently watching the yellow road line that restricted drivers from crossing over the edge. This line flowed and flowed and never stopped. Sometimes, but not too often, there would be a small interruption in this unbreakable yellow line; a dead animal or a crevice in the face of the highway would lead to a momentary break but the line would always find itself and regain its fullness.

While gazing and mindlessly thinking I realized that this line is a metaphor for life. I would even go so far as to say that I understood it as a symbol. Life goes on and on, sometimes with ease, but often times the feeling of gliding through life is interrupted by hard times and moments of loss. I stared at this line for upwards of fifteen minutes before tearing my gaze away; I couldn’t stop. My faith was in that line—I cheered it on as if I were a spectator at a sports game. The people, the bus, and the Vermont scenery around me melted away and for just a blinding moment the only thing that existed was that line within me. It wasn’t a line of restriction as I had previously believed it to be, it was a line of possibility. This stroke of yellow paint keeps vehicles and their riders safe—it not only represents the line of life, but it attempts to nurture life in itself. I did not want the moment of realization to end, but as all things do, it did as well.

I believe that this line, to me, was a symbol for the process of human existence and what it can be for any person that opens their mind to its possibilities.