In a word: one ought to turn the most extreme possibility inside oneself into the measure for one’s life, for our life is vast and can accommodate as much future as we are able to carry.*
(Rainer Maria Rilke)

Designing story tests the maturity and insight of the writer, his knowledge of society, nature, and the human heart. It demands both vivid imagination and powerful analytical thought.  But above all, it requires a mastery of craft.**
(Robert McKee)

It seemed like a good idea to the small group of us who didn’t enjoy the idea of a cross-country. We saw the opportunity to take a shortcut down a slope, cutting of a loop of the circuit.

Out of the bushes at the bottom of the hill appeared our P.E. teacher. My recollection is that that he was smiling as he told us that we would be running cross country again the following week when everyone was playing football.

We had cheated but the only ones cheated were ourselves.

A shortcut to our goals or to get ahead may seem like a good idea at the time, but in the end we may only be cheating ourselves out of who we can be and what we can do.

Anyway, in the exploring of the fullness of things the goal we’ve been so intent on gaining may change completely.

(*From Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters on Life.)
(**From Robert McKee‘s newsletter: Why Writers Study.)