Journal Entry 24: Crossing the Rubicon

"Crossing the Rubicon" is a very effective way to make stories more interesting. This choice of whether to cross the line that you cant ever come back from happens in almost all books, in one form or another. Several examples of this include when Harry first agrees to go with Hagrid to Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series, and when Siddhartha leaves his father to join the Samanas. The reactions of the people "crossing the Rubicon" usually start off as apprehensive, and then differ depending on how the situation turns out. In the Harry Potter example, it is a very positive situation, so after being nervous at first, he becomes happier than he has ever been. In the Siddhartha example, he does not find what he is looking for, so he becomes unhappy, and must search even more fervently for the meaning of his life.  The obvious example of this in my life would be leaving my old school to move to Taiwan. At first I did not react very well, but it got better for a while, but I guess now I am getting worse again.