Train Keeps A Rollin'.


At 4:20 every afternoon, a train comes by the new Career Center East on a track that is located right past the faculty parking lot. I can look down from my studio window and see it go by every day. It kind of reminds me of a few things and makes me think when I watch it go past. Although I have changed locations recently, and the studio is different and the students are new this semester (except for 11 advanced students whom I have already worked with) we still have the "feel" of the studio the way it has always been. We work hard and we have high expectations, at this time of year especially. Everything that we are going to accomplish is ahead of us, kind of like the track that lies ahead of this train...

THE TRAIN OF LIFE

Some folks ride the train of life looking out the rear,
Watching miles of life roll by and marking every year.
They sit in sad remembrance of wasted days gone by,
And curse their life for what it was and hang their head and cry.

But I don't concern myself with that, I took a different vent,
I look forward to what life holds and not what has been spent.
So strap me to the engine, as securely as I can be,
I want to be out on the front, to see what I can see.

I want to feel the winds of change, blowing in my face,
I want to see what life unfolds, as I move from place to place.
I want to see what's coming up, not looking at the past,
Life's too short for yesterdays, it moves along too fast.

So if the ride gets bumpy, while you are looking back,
Go up front, and you may find, your life has jumped the track.
It's all right to remember, that's part of history,
But up front's where it's happening, there's so much mystery.

The enjoyment of living is not where we have been,
It's looking ever forward to another year and ten.
It's searching all the byways, never should you refrain,
For if you want to live your life, you gotta drive the train.

~By Marv Hardin


So when I saw the train go by today as I was going in to work a few hours at Career Center East, I grabbed my trusty iPhone and snapped a rather low quality photo of it. Not really because I thought I would get a great shot, but because I wanted to freeze that moment in time. I wanted to have a photo of it so that it would remind me to talk about future expectations, what lies ahead, and "the unknown and the unseen and the unpredictable". We really have no way of knowing if this year will be the best we have ever had. It is all up to us, and it is all a story yet to be written. All I know for sure, is that I want to be on the train no matter what track it leads me down. I want to "see what's coming up, not looking at the past" and I want to drive my train. I look forward to this journey.


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