About two months ago, I was walking back to my apartment pretty late at night. As I was crossing the bridge, I decided to look around to make sure no one was following me (my neighborhood is quite sketchy at night). As I was looking back, something extravagant caught my eye. It was simply the view from the top of the bridge. I had crossed this bridge millions of times during the day and never had the slightest interest in the view. This was the first time I had walked back home so late and all I saw was simply car traffic: nothing really special. Yet, there was something extremely different this time and I knew that this would be the perfect picture to take for the Macaulay NYC Snapshot. After stopping to look at this amazing view, the first thing that came to me was life’s journey.
Personally, I felt that this picture was perfect. As I was processing the view, many things came to my mind. The many cars in the photo represent us as human beings, racing through life’s journey, making decisions and trying to reach a common goal: success. Almost everyone, whether student or graduate, has a desire to reach success. The traffic symbolizes the obstacles and hindrances in life that prevent us from becoming successful and achieving our goals and dreams. In order for us to reach our desired destination, we need to learn to maneuver through these obstacles and learn to persevere when we are faced with difficult circumstances. The traffic also represents how it is necessary sometimes for us to wait and be patient. Not everything will come when we want. It is important for us to realize that there are times when you need to take a step back and patiently wait for the best.
The other thing that came to mind was the big picture in life. I felt that the holes in the fence represent how we as humans cannot see the big picture. There is no way for us to know exactly what we will happen; all we can see are glimpses in the big picture. None of us knows what the future holds, what jobs we will have, if we will ever become successful or how many days we have left on this earth. The best things we can do are work our hardest and take advantage off all opportunities. The blur and darkness in the night also represent how our visions are limited. Sometimes, we may not get what we want or something undesirable may happen such as not getting a job. However, I believe everything happens for a reason and undesirable circumstances may be blessings in disguise. For example, not getting a desired job may be positive because you may eventually end up finding an even better one.
Overall, I think that life is more complicated than we perceive it to be. Some days will be happy and others will be sad. Occasionally, we get what we want and other times, we end up getting the complete opposite. We as human beings need to realize that it is impossible for us to guarantee positive outcomes. All we can do is to put in our best efforts and hope for the best.
