In this preordained circumstance

The stars align just right
Genes pooled by the ancestors of the stars
A blade sharpened just right
To kill a beast, to save a town
To rescue a girl
All planned in our adolescent heads
A future lay ahead
The destination of our adolescent minds
Though the lies of our past run
Like the wolves of the night
This preordained deed
Halts by the corruption of our memories
Our pasts
Our old decisions
Leak into our pristine preordained future
Stain like permanent ink the plans that lay so closely ahead
The people that we are
Are not the same people as we predetermined ourselves to be
We are all blank slates
Inked by the memories of our pasts

A couple of years ago our class read a novel by Truman Capote called In Cold Blood. It was about two men who had murdered a family in the dead of night. No one knew which man had killed the family or if it had been both. It dealt heavily with the theme of nature vs. nurture in terms of which is the key factor that makes us who we are. Nature behind our DNA makes us who we are and nurture, being how we have been raised and our experiences, shape us into the person we are supposed to become. So I wrote the poem above to reflect upon the question do we have a predestined future (nature) or are we all blank slates (nurture)? It is one of those theories among the scientific realm that is often debated-- whether we come into this world a “blank slate,” meaning having no personality and the experiences we have shape us into who we are or whether we are born with this destiny or predetermined future.

I'd like to think we have the choice in the matter of our lives that the things we experience make us who we become-- that the people we are are not determined by genes or who are parents were or some “destiny.” At the end of each day, I like to think I have the choice in the matter--though up until I heard this question I always believed in chance, fate and destiny. I always thought that there was some bigger picture I was supposed to fit into and it was my so called destiny or fate.

I feel that as I have grown I have come to terms with the realism of life so I don't lean to the side as much as I used to. I solely believe that the choices we make help us make up who we become. That we are also the only ones responsible for our own choices-- we cannot blame the nature of oneself. We can change us into whatever we want to be. That nothing is set in stone unless that is the thinking mentality one has. So I hope that we are each blank slates that own the pens to write whatever story of our lives we wish to have.