A Leap Into The Abyss

By: C. Muro

As soon as we start school, our lives changes and we start noticing something called uncertainty. Exams start and with them comes the usual questions of: "Did I study enough? Did I pass? How many answers did I get right?" And the next few days are full of worry, anxiety, and it might seem unbearable waiting for the results. In moments like this, we are faced with the unknown, where there is nothing we can do, except to take a leap into this dark, concealed abyss, and hope we make it to the other side.


As we get older the stakes are higher. College applications are the next big step. You send out essays, documents, you are interviewed and hold on tightly to your dreams of a future you can't yet see, but you take this jump anyway and pray to get to where you have wished for so long.


A few years later, we start our journey in the work world where a job interview feels like yet another exam. Hands shaking, trembling hands, but you pretend you are confident and defy the power the unknown holds. By trying to take matter into your own hands, you long to have some control over the mysterious force that works around us, but you must still step forward trusting there will be ground to be stepped on, leaping into the abyss one more time.


The unknown does not limit itself to school or careers. It comes into our deepest feelings and personal lives. When loved ones get ill, we turn to hope. Even though doctors try their best, even science reaches its limits. In those moments, we turn to something greater: faith, fate, prayer, or simply the wish everything will turn out fine. We resort to the concealed energy because there is nothing we could possibly do.


As life goes on, we tend to plan more and hope to leap less. We study, we prepare, but there is one last big leap that waits for us all. The one nobody has ever returned from. Death is the ultimate unknown. As grim as this might sound, it is the truth. We know what happens to your body when we pass away, but what about to our soul? Heaven? Hell? Reincarnation? Nothingness? No one knows for sure, that is part of its mysticism, but that might just be the whole point. Our very last leap into the abyss might feel more unknown than our first ones. Floating in oblivion. 
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Throughout life, we attempt to control many things, but the future never comes with warnings or guarantees. The unknown will always be there. At times it'll be terrifying, thrilling, emotional, but always inevitable. The unknown has many names; some call it God, others destiny, luck, purpose. Whatever name we call it, we all rely on it at some point. We face it and still find one more glimpse of hope to keep on leaping from abyss into abyss.