workshop 
announcement

in issue five
Scintillations
My Final Phone Call
Master Of My Fate
Almost Famous Photographers
Bugs
Cubicle Hell
Breaking Out Of My Cocoon
Letters To My Younger Self 
Boundaries & Walls
Surviving Today
Adventures In Chalking
Books That Changed My Life
Declare What You Are
My Most Brave Moment
Masks of Bravery  
Love And God
Moody Girl

poetry
Vocalizing
Bravery
The Imaginary "You"

afterthoughts
comments from our readers

contributors

take me back
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future issues
Issue Six: Friendship
Issue Seven: Trust

previous issues
Issue One: Change
Issue Two: Balance
Issue Three: Spring
Issue Four: Goddess

When I was 17, I tore an advertisement from the pages of a teen magazine.  I think it was a shampoo ad.  I can see it clearly in my mind; a black and white photograph of a young woman with beautiful hair and a caption that read, “I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul.”  For a long time I had the ad pinned to my bulletin board - a reminder of the power within.  Over time it became dog-eared and lost beneath the multitudes of photos, report cards and awards typical of a teenager's room. Eventually, like much of the teenage memorabilia I had collected, the ad found its way into the trash.

Several years later I found myself sorting through memorabilia once again, this time in preparation to make a long-distance move.  After countless hours of sorting and packing, I bid my first apartment farewell and headed off to a new adventure.

With this move, I had finally been given the opportunity to create the life I had imagined. Instead of venturing forth in search of new experiences, I was paralyzed by fear. I wasted the first few months of my new life eating chips and watching talk shows.  I spent my time feeling sorry for myself; too busy wondering if I'd made the right decision to take advantage of my new surroundings.

In the midst of a particularly pathetic attack of “poor-me-syndrome,” I found myself re-reading old journal entries and remembering the “good old days.”  In the back of one of my old journals, in my teen-aged scrawl, I had written, “I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul.”  For a long while I sat there staring at those words.  I conjured up the vision of the magazine ad where I had first read that powerful declaration and tried to remember how I'd felt at 17. 

I recalled staring at the words in that shampoo ad, and feeling a surge of self-assurance.  It was then, for the first time I understood that I was responsible for creating my own reality through the choices I made.  At 17, I vowed to become the master of my fate. 

Somewhere between then and now, I had forgotten the meaning of those words and their impact on my life.  It was only when I was finally ready to be the master of my fate, I truly began to experience life fully.  By bravely embracing those words as an adult, I finally exercised their power to influence my life.

I have recently moved again, and I haven’t for a moment felt sorry for myself.  I am adjusting beautifully to another beginning in a new city.  Being the master of my fate and the captain of my soul is hard work, yet the power in those words urges me on in the deepest of worry or sorrow.  And in the moments when I experience true bliss, I know it’s because I live those words. 

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