Narrowing Destiny

Interesting term I thought up when I was driving around in my truck the other day: "Narrowing Destiny". The purpose is to describe what happens as we live and grow and mature and experience life - the potential of what we can become is increasingly limited by what we have experienced and the choices we have made. There's a phrase in the Star Wars series of movies which goes "...it is your destiny!" It's very dramatic and lots of people nod their heads with serious looks on their faces. In the christian circles there are those which believe in 'pre-destination' - a supposed fact that God has already decided who's going to heaven and hell and that we really can't change it. The cruelest part of it is that we seem to have no choice.

The big question for every child, and especially as they get out of High School, is what they will do with their life. At the point of graduating from High School, they have already made certain choices which will limit what they can become - at the graduation of college they have made even more choices limiting them. The individual that they can become has been limited because of their experiences and education, and their destiny (those things that they can accomplish within their lifetime) has also been limited.

Take two High School graduates who are interested in Web Design. We'll call the first Dave, and the second John. Dave, being very interested in web design, decides to study computers and emphasize his studies on web design in college. John, on the other hand, decides he wants to teach about computers. So let's say that both of them are "destined" to design a website after they graduate from college. Though there is nothing stopping either of them from designing websites, the website that Dave designs will be dynamically different than the one that John designs. Why? Is it just the schooling? No, it's the friends they made as they were learning, the priorities they learned as they studied, what their social activities exposed them to. Our experiences effect us in how we think, reason, and react.

Thus, their individual destinies are limited by where they've been, what they've learned, and how they experienced life. "Narrowing Destiny" is not a good or bad thing - it's just a fact of life.