By Alex Bonardi, TIWP Student

“Tell me, what it is you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life”
—Mary Oliver

Not a single person has asked me that question before… which is why it has left me so stumped and confused and lost. All my life, I’ve been told how to act, what to wear, and where to go. But in a few years it will all be up to me. Up till now, no one—except for Mary Oliver—has made me feel that it is up to me, where I take myself. But if we all started to ask this earlier in life, wouldn’t we be happier? The smart, innocent boy who has to choose where he goes to college tomorrow wouldn’t be curled up in his bed dreading to go downstairs where his parents await him with a stack of papers, forcing him to sign them. So where do I plan to go? Well, Mary, thank you for asking.

I want to feel endlessly happy, with people who beam rays of happiness all around me. I want every day to feel like nothing could have been better. I want to go to far away places and to see things most people only dream of. There will be days where I stay out all day adventuring and there will be days where I stay in bed. But I will never be bored. I hope to make decisions for me, and to never worry about a single thing. I just want happiness.

Thank you, Mary.