a journey of finding yourself

A journey is a divergence in paths in which you can take the road to success or the path to conformity. In the short story The Journey by Mary Oliver, the speaker learns to disregard other sources and focus on themselves and finding who they are. The same goes for Leon Bridges, he did not wish to conform to other ways of doing things. He wanted to speak truth into his music instead of lies and made-up stories. While Leon Bridges and Mary Oliver had distinctly different journeys, their lessons were quite the same as they learned to find themselves and who they are. Next, the legendary Leon Bridges never intended to become who he is today or what people will remember him as. In the passage Leon Bridges explains, “I didn’t think I could sing, I knew I could do stuff here and there, but didn’t think that I was good enough to fit in” (Weiss 193). For the longest time Leon Bridges never in a million years thought that he could ever be anything let alone be good enough. Leon Briges could do some things at the time but not enough to prove to himself and others that he had potential to become something great. In the passage Leon Bridges goes on to say, “All this shows that you can’t teach soul music. it has to be something already inside you” (Weiss 192). What Leon Bridges is saying is that soul music is not able to be taught, it must be within the person to pursue soul music. Although he did not think that he was good enough to make something of himself, he just never dug deep enough to find that special place where he really shined. And then from there he finds his passion for soul music and from there finds who he was or who Leon Bridges was. Secondly, a woman by the name of Mary Oliver finds herself put in a similar predicament such as the one Leon Bridges encountered. In the short story The Journey it explains “one day finally you knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice” (Oliver 185). Mary Oliver encounters a time where she had to shut out other people as they were giving her bad advice, advice not in her best interest. This connects to a particular individual by the name of Leon Bridges as he had to veer off the path and not conform to the norm or typical way of doing things. He had to do things his own way like that of Mary Oliver, she wanted to do things her own way and not conform to others and how they wanted things. Then it states in the passage “but little by little, as you left their voices behind the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice, which you slowly recognize as your own (Oliver 185). This is where Mary Oliver finally learns to ostracize the other voice and find a new voice that she finds to be her own. Furthermore, let us address how Mary Oliver changed her thinking to accommodate change in her life, or finding her voice. In the passage it states, “as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do determined to save the only life you could save” (Oliver 185-186). What she is saying is she took a big leap of faith and did what was necessary for survival. She did what she had to do even if she had to go out of her way to do so. In the end, she found her voice, she found whom she was instead of taking others’ inadequate advice and living by their standards. In addition, Leon Bridges came across the same circumstances but had vastly different means of facing it. It goes on to say in the text, “he picked up singing and guitar as a hobby at first, and began playing at open mics and small shows” (Weiss 193). This demonstrates kind of where it all started, he began small doing little things here and there. Not long after that, his friend sparked his interest in the field by introducing him to Sam Cooke. As it is said in the passage, “a friend asked if Sam Cooke was an inspiration. I'd never listened, but wanted to know my roots, so I looked him up on YouTube and Pandora, says Bridges. Once I heard it, I saw it that was the music that I wanted to write” (Weiss 193). This is the light at the end of the tunnel. He finally found what he wanted to do, at first, he did not believe in himself, he did not believe that he could ever be good enough to fit in. But he changed the way he went about things and is now compared to greats in the soul music industry such as Sam Cooke. In conclusion, these two individuals had tremendously different experiences yet along the way they came to a fork in the road in which they both took the same path. Both are two very different people yet so alike in how they faced their problems or the challenge of finding themselves. So which path is your path?