my path

the laughing, the talking, the babies crying, the chewing of food, the clinking of ice cubes in glasses the sounds from this crowded train were peircing through my head like nails on a chalkboard.

"shut up!!" i wanted to scream. but i couldnt, i have enough decency to keep my cool. i have never been so on edge in my life. this could quite possibly be the most important day of my entire life.

in six hours i will sitting in a meeting with the dean of students at my fream school, university of toronto. i had to have an essay prepared for when i arrived. "six hours, six hours, six hours" those words ran through my head as if they were on a loop. all i had written down so far was my name "caroline platts" now dont get me wrong i love english, the writing was not the problem, for the life of me i could not think of a "life altering experience" i had been through. that was the topic of the essay i had to be writting. i stared at my blank laptop screen when the sound of a mother screaming had caught my attention, as well as everyone on board.

"emily!!!" she screamed "my daughter is missing" the screams were coming from an older lady mid 50's with firey red hair, and pale skin with loads of freckles. "missing?" i questioned. we have been on this train for four haours, and have not stopped yet. how far could she go? people form all over the train swarmed the lady who is now unconsollable. minutes later a tolddler aged little girl get up from underneath the seats. she had blonde hair that was in two lopsided pigtails on the side of her head with a white tee-shirt and rainbow overalls. i looked around to see if anyone else had seen her she looks at me and puts her finger too her lip as id saying "shh" i winked at her in aggreence, it was fun what can i say. she did not make it very far before she has been spotted by her mother as she treid to sneak away. "emilia elizabeth rose, get your butt over here" the mother yelled. the little girl then runs to her mom giggiling. the mom embraces her in a hug and starts crying. the passengers were all cheering and smiling. as happy as i was for this lady all i could think about was how long these people were going to continue to scream and cheer. i sat there for a moment and thats when it hit me. my life altering experience! i looked back at my laptop and began eagerly writing. i got lost in my words and before i knew it we were in toronto, ironically i had typed my last sentence the second we pulled into the station. i closed my laptop and gathered my things and began to exit the train, i arrived at the station and called a taxi. i was waiting outside the station when i saw a group of girls around my age with papers in there hands laughing and drinking smoothies all of theyre hoodies read "UofT" seeing them made me emotional and reminded me how badlt i wanted that to be my life, i was so caught up in myday dream i didnt even see my taxi driver flagging me down. i hopped into the back seat of the bright yellow taxi. the driver looked at me through his rear viwe mirror and said "where to?"

"main campus, please" i replied he then reposotioned his mirror and began driving during the drive all i could think about was my essay, was it good enough? i arrived at campus and paid my taxi driver. i then took one deep breath of the toronto air before steeping out of the car. i walked down campus looking at the bright green grass, the smella of pine from the trees, the frat boys playing with a football, and a group of girls sat on the grass in front of them mesmerized by theyre playing. i couldnt help but roll my eyes at them, ive never understood how girls can be so caught up on boys when there was so much beautiful scenery right there in front of them. i walked into the building to see a secritary sitting at a large perfectly white desk in a large completly glass room "hi" i said "i am here for a meeting with the dean of students?"

"caroline?" she asked me "yes i replied"

she then lead me to a little office and told me to sit at the desk and that mrs.younge would be there soon. when mrs.younge walked in i stood up to shake her hand. "hello Caroline" she said "im running late so im going to cut right to the chase, i have read youre writing i know its good." she then picked up my essay and ripped it in half

"i want to dig deeper she said "who is caroline"

i stared at her blankly "tell me about the experience you wrote about"

"oh" i said suprised "okay, i wrote about an experience i had when i was nine years old. my mom had brought me to a local nature walk in my city, she just wanted to go on a nice hike, we had been walking for a little over an hour when over the edge of the jill i saw a waterfall, it was small but it ran down some rocks and into the cutest little stream, i remeber feeling so taken over by the feeling of freeness, i was completly mesmerized, i stared into the water, i watched the squirrels run up and down trees, i saw the bright blue sky and i was so interested in the clouds and the shapes of them, the height of trees i remeber thinking how insane that is, i was in intriged by nature, and all it had to offer i didnt even hear my mom screaming my name and the three other hikers she had gathered to help look for me, i hadnt even realized i was missing. when she saw me i remeber her embrace she was so relived and all i could think about was nature and how gorgeous it was."

" thats great caroline" mrs.younge said but how is that life altering

"well" i replied "from that day on i knew i loved nature and everything about it. now i want to be an enviormental science major, i believe that day was the start of my entire life"

"thank you caroline" she said and she hastly left the office

i didnt know how to feel about what had just happened but i got up and called another taxi to bring me to my hotel, when it arrived it was the same driver "back so soon?" he joked "i guess so" i replied

i told him the adress of my hotel and we started driving. not even two minutes into the drive and i heard my phone ring, i rushed to answer it. "hello?" i said "hi caroline this is mrs.younge from the university of toronto" "oh my goodness, hi" i said "caroline, i was throughly impressed by youre interview today and i believe that you would be an incredible asset to our enviormental science program"

"thank you so so much" i squealed

"my pleasure" she replied laughing

i hung up the phone and looked out the car window, i saw the same blue sky, even bigger trees, gorgeous green grass. and purple lilacs on a field across the street. once again i was mesmerized by nautre. i cotinued looking out the window ll the way to my hotel. "welcome home" i hought to myself. i couldnt help but smile.