How Sylvia Plath’s “The Fig Tree” Changed My Perspective on Life

<h2>A Poem Changed Me.</h2> I was 17 when I first read The Fig Tree. I was just about to graduate school and begin my life. My mind was overflowing with ideas, countries, and careers I wanted to pursue. But the overwhelm of choosing hadn’t yet kicked in. I was spinning around in possibilities, like a giddy child on Christmas day examining unopened presents. And then I read this poem. And I stopped spinning. I sat down and read it again. And again. I had never heard of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Plath" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Sylvia Plath</a> before. How could she have written such a relatable story? The muscles on my shoulders tensed as I realized that I would indeed have to choose something. One day. “I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet, and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.” <a href="https://thetaoist.online/how-sylvia-plaths-the-fig-tree-changed-my-perspective-on-life-1a8871993751">Visit Now</a>