As I walked down the bustling city streets, flashing lights from the billboards above me assaulted my eyes.  It was disorienting to say the least.  I paused to close my eyes and inhale deeply while counting to ten.  When I opened them again, the same lights greeted me, though they were slightly less intrusive than before.

I rejoined the crowd moving towards the street corner.  The tide of bodies never ceased, thousands of people racing each other to some goal, some endpoint.  Everyone had somewhere they needed to be.  Everyone except for me.

After I crossed the street and made my way down the next block, I passed a small back alley littered with broken bottles, cigarette butts, graffiti, and a single size ten shoe.  I had stumbled down this alley after taking a wrong turn years ago.  I knew the other end was blocked by a crude chain fence, and finding your way out of the original entrance in the darkness was a difficult process.  This was not a detour I would repeat.

I arrived at the bus stop, hopeful that I would finally be on my way to my destination.  As I waited for the bus to turn the corner and pull up to the curb, a street performer caught my eye.  He was a grizzled old man with a ventriloquist’s dummy on his knee.  He was wearing rags and babbling nonsense from the mouth of the dummy.

“They don’t even know where they’re going.  Should I help them?  Hmm, yes, And yes I said yes I will Yes”

The bus came slowly to a stop, and people began to file on.  I turned from my momentary distraction and found myself at the back of the line.  This frustrated me; I knew the buses had limited seating, and this was the last one to depart from this stop.

Sure enough, the vehicle reached maximum occupancy before I could set foot on board.

“Haha, what a dummy!” cackled the ventriloquist through his inanimate companion.  The old man’s eyes wrinkled with laughter at his perceived humor.  I ignored him as I turned away from the bus stop and set off down the street.

The city lights were becoming disorienting again.  The blocks went by in a blur, and it was all I could do to put one foot in front of the other.  I wished I could get off the streets, find a place to rest and recover.  Maybe, after all these years, today would be the day my wandering would end…

I stopped short.  There, behind a notice board with pamphlets advertising a concert being put on at University of Chicago, was a small double doorway.  I stepped to the side to get a better look.  Standing beside the doors was the old man I had seen earlier, but he appeared slightly different.  Gone was the dummy from his knee, and his clothes had changed from rags to the outfit of a doorman.  The one thing that remained unchanged was his smile.

“You made it,” he said warmly.  “Now won’t you come inside?”

I stood there rooted in shock.  Only moments before I had been wandering aimlessly, hoping I would stumble upon it.  Could I have really finished my journey?

A few hesitant paces forward.  I paused again.  “Come.  Don’t be afraid,” he beckoned.  I covered the last few meters to the two doors and set my hand on the frame.  The ancient wood was intricately carved, and as I ran my hands over it I felt a sense of familiarity.

I looked back over my shoulder at the life I would be leaving behind.  I was stunned by what I saw.  No longer was there a confusing canvas of lights blurring my mind and senses.  Instead, the lights, the memories and experiences from my life so far, had coalesced into an image like a pointillist painting.  I peered closer and saw myself exactly as I was now, with my hand on the door frame and a look of wonder on my face.  As I turned away from the image and stepped through the threshold, I knew I had finally arrived.  This was where I belonged, my place in life.  While the doors swung shut behind me, I felt the same smile I had seen on the old man creep over my face as I stepped forward into my future.