Well, this place seems familiar. The marble floors, the Redwood sized columns, the polished wooden benches, they all seem like a photo from a distant dream. But I haven't been here before. Maybe it was something like this, but it wasn't here.
Hunched over I stare at the train tracks not too far from where I am sitting. I don't know which direction the train is going, and I don't even know when it will be here. All I know is that the ticket I hold in my hand is for the next train. I was given this ticket along with a promise, "This will get you to a place far beyond your imagination. Just wait for the next train. It will take you there." That's all the ticket man said before he walked off.
At first it was easy. I can imagine some pretty cool stuff, so if it's better than all that, wherever this train will take me is going to be someplace spectacular! "Yeah," I thought to myself, "I will have no problem waiting for the train."
But then minutes turned into hours, and I was getting restless. When would this train come!? And those hours soon added up to days. That's when an unwanted friend sat down beside me; his name was Doubt. He kept asking me when the train would come. He even wondered if I missed the train, or if the train even existed at all. Then he started asking me about the ticket man; maybe he was misinformed, or maybe he tricked me.
Doubt tried to be nice, he tried offering me ideas of how to fix my situation as if something was wrong with it. He suggested I stop waiting and just hunt down the ticket man to question him. Then he suggested I simply follow the tracks on foot because, clearly, the train wasn't coming.
I thought about it a little. And the longer I sat there waiting, the more I thought about it. Maybe Doubt was right after all, maybe I would be better off following the tracks on my own, at least then I'd be doing something. So eventually I got up, grabbed my bag and swung the strap over my shoulder. I stepped next to the train tracks and glanced to my left, and then to my right searching for a faint image of a train off in the distance, but there was none.
I took one step forward, and then hesitated again. Which way was I supposed to go? See, that's the thing with train tracks, it can travel either direction. And I had no idea what direction was the right one. So I stood there, upset, as Doubt whispered in my ear, "Just take a chance. Go with your gut. You've got nothing to lose. It's a 50/50 chance. If you pick the wrong direction the worst that will happen is you have to back track. It's still better then waiting."
I took one step back. "No," I took a deep breathe, "I think I'll wait here for now." And with that I turned around to find my spot on the polished bench once more.
Moments later, somewhere off in the distance, I heard a horn. It was a train, MY train! I still couldn't tell what direction it was coming from, and I knew without looking that it was still out of sight, but it's out there. My train IS coming! Where it will take me I still don't know, but it exists and it will take me somewhere better than I can imagine!
Slowly, as I nestled myself back into the bench, my lips formed an upward arch that even Doubt couldn't hold back.
