Joseph Campbell: A Hero's Journey

Sara Parlagreco
Heidii McMichael
English 7
Word Count: 1799

"Momma always says there's an awful lot you could tell about a person by their shoes. Where they're going. Where they've been" (Forrest Gump). This quote has never been truer for me as it has in the past year and a half. I have spent a good portion of the last year and a half in only one shoe, while my other "shoe" was actually a walking boot. My walking boot, a scar on my ankle, and a scar on my forehead are the last visible remnants of a car accident that almost took my life a year and a half ago. Author, Joseph Campbell, determined that the basic structure of any heroic journey contains the same 12 stages. I think it is safe to say that everyone has experienced at least some of those 12 stages at one point or another in their life. Although, I believe that the experience of those events is what makes a hero,

When I reflect over the 23 years I have spent on this earth, I can pick many instances in which my life resembled that of Campbell's definition of a hero's journey, but I think the events of the past four years have by far, been the most defining.
Growing up I was always a bit of a wild-child. I was (and still am) impulsive, I

My life quickly became a cruel example of this fundamental concept. I had finally figured out what I wanted to do, and I was on a mission to get there. I ramped up the number of units I was taking. I was working three jobs and going to school full time. I was unstoppable. I had a plan-as we all do-and like many other Christians, God had a bigger plan. I was too busy being "unstoppable" to be bothered by caring about anything else other than me and my own greatness. That was my first