There are many great rivers in my life. Some involving school, which is still taking multiple turns. Family who is a strong river and I haven't drown in it yet. Friendships that have come and gone that have had different tributaries that either have trailed off, or joined another river in my life. I think a kind of river that most people struggle with is the river of dating. Whether it's been a small river flowing into a larger one, or many small rivers along this pathway of life.

For me, this river started freshmen year of high school. Freshmen year this river started when I had my first kiss at 15. The guy was nice, but we ended up being good friends after a couple years. Then, this river took another turn when I went to junior prom with one of my friends, who was a junior, and ended up dating for a month. My river then was mostly water, but with a few tears mixed in.

As I finished freshmen year, I was kind of just going along with this river that became filled with water again. Then I started dating another guy. To my surprise, this lasted more than a month. So, my river grew. We had fun times, fun dates and dances. It wasn't until a year passed, and I started to see that this river filled up more with tears, rather than water.

See being "in love" may be a saying, but another saying is "love is blind." As this relationship continued, this river that I thought was crystal clear started to turn a little mucky. He started choosing friends over me, at times said things about me that weren't too nice and I had to make another turn, however I wish I didn't have too. Now I'm kind of just going along, looking at a few different tributaries, but mostly going along focusing on the rivers that matter most to me in life: my friends, and my family. See, we are put on this journey of life without any maps or directions.

But on a typical map, we see rivers as well. I think as we go throughout this journey of life, our map is filled by what we do. But, no matter what we do, we have to always keep pressing on and walk through those murky rivers that we thought were crystal clear. Maybe, even end them when we see no clearing to it. But we have to keep our eyes looking forward. Don't look back if the river has ended, because most likely it will be dried up. And if there are a few dried up rivers, then it's not your fault. All you have to do is keep going and know that a bigger and greater river is going to form. We just gotta keep track on our map, mark down which rivers are dead and which aren't, and keep on going until we find the "x that marks the spot."