Does your life follow the "hero's journey" mold?

[ThePunkAlien]

I'm not even sure if someone in their teenage years can perceive this, I know I wouldn't be able to because of the way my path went and is going, and because those years only accounted for the beginning steps in the journey of becoming a fully matured adult. Which, granted, is going to take a lot longer (the return is said to be as long as the 'departure' "call to adventure" -> "belly of the whale" stage)

JOSEPH CAMPBELL'S 'HEROES JOURNEY' is an archetypal arc of a hero that goes through stages, it has also been applied to psychological analysis of patients and their arcs. Usually these heroes are orphans.

THE CALL TO ADVENTURE: Told to head off into unknown

REFUSAL OF THE CALL: Fear of heading into unknown, refuses to

AID : Supernatural aid/mentor/pusher of the change

CROSSING FIRST THRESHOLD : Ventures into unknown and dangerous realm.

BELLY OF THE WHALE: Hero goes into adventure, feel like can die at any second

ROAD OF TRIALS: Acts/events the hero has to overcome

MEETING WITH THE GODDESS: person experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother.

WOMAN AS TEMPTRESS: lead the hero to abandon or stray from his or her quest.

ATONEMENT WITH THE FATHER: person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life.

APOTHESIS: someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit

ULTIMATE BOON: the achievement of the goal of the quest.

RETURN: Hero returns with ultimate boon

MY LIFE

I'm an orphan. Attended private high school, all guys, thus only interaction with girls was actually till middle school School then college (college is like high school in those terms due to lost years)

When I was around six years old I found I was adopted and began to question everything. I closed myself off from society and those around me. Eventually something my adoptive parents said made me abandon thinking about roots. I stay behind. A supernatural presence in house of a teenage guy my age - animalis form (or something like that, as found out from 'Haunting of Connecticut' documentary - a troubled teen/young adult forms a perception of a ghost haunting him, but this is the side he's repressed and isn't able to show - I've always known it WANTED ME TO LEAVE - it forced me into keeping away from home (due to this fear I started spending majority of summers in Los Angeles after sophomore year in college).

I crossed the first threshold when I left home to go college. Belly of the whale would explain my freshman year. Too scared to wander out, beyond sad because I was alone and unable to communicate with anyone - swallowed by the unknown and appears to have died.

The road of trials as I gradually open myself up to people throughout sophomore and junior year and my first summer in Los Angeles. My cat dying and my cousin dying which triggers long buried thoughts concerning biological parents.

I fall into a state of feeling like I was still a baby attached to my first parents and desperately needing them. I cry myself to sleep one night asking naturally, "why did you leave me?" while unconciously (at the time) curling into fetal position.

Temptress enters my life. We start a relationship. I look at her to pull me out of the hole. In Los Angeles between Junior and Senior year I have the chance to start a relationship with a girl, but become afraid, hide and run back to the temptress. Relationship continues. In October, she leaves me out cold with a bottle of booze in my hand. Stands me up at a club and texts me that it's over without giving a reason, before she told me ahead of time she was never in a person-to-person relationship because she gets afraid and backs out of it - I was another victim of this siren girl. I fall into a heavy breakdown turning to heavy alcohol use and start using drugs to escape. A friend has to come down for an intervention. Months pass.

Over winter break, something cracked and I couldn't live my life molding myself to others expectations anymore. Fully became the punk alien in look and attitude. I start getting more chances and interacting with people. It's almost as though I died and was brought back to life in essential spirit. In order to continue this though I have to atone with my absent father and the fear he's given me of rejection - imagine fear of rejection as a dragon that I have to slay and that dragon is controlled by my father. I have to remain strong in atonement with my father in order to continue the apothesis.

Finally comes the ultimate boon - ability to be myself while interacting with others and stronger because of the years spent in hell. Looks like I'll have achieved that by the time graduation comes in a couple of months. The following stage is 'the return' - which is frighteningly real, it's my return to Los Angeles and start completely in my new life.

Predicting my future - "master of two worlds" - what the hero does with this is he takes the experience he has earned and spreads the message to others. Just so happens coincidences in my life have made me: A warner brothers intern, the go-to-writer for the son of an academy award winner. I was given the gift of writing and my voice, I think this might be how that translates.

BASICALLY...

CALL TO ADVENTURE: Join society, acknowledge biological parents.

REFUSAL OF CALL: I refused to do this.

SUPERNATURAL AID : A haunting, of a kind, forced me into feeling like I had to leave home for my own protection.

CROSSING THE FIRST THRESHOLD : Going to college

BELLY OF THE WHALE: Staying strong, yet suffering in hell, in Freshman year.

THE ROAD OF TRIALS: Start connecting with people. Make first friend in years. Go through losses from pet to family member. Experience life in Los Angeles.

MEETING WITH THE GODDESS: Recognizing my biological mother and yearning for her presence, but eventually moving on while feeling that she is still a strong presence in my life.

WOMAN AS TEMPTRESS: Siren Girl who derails me from a possibly great in-person relationship with a girl and of my goal & plan to try to start over. Sever mental breakdown.

APOTHESIS: Out of place, but - fully becoming 'the punk alien' and living life for me. Death of the old, vow to change and become anew.

ATONEMENT WITH THE FATHER: In order to succeed, I must challenge and defeat the fear of rejection my father gave me.

ULTIMATE BOON: Stronger, son of two worlds, able to interact and approach others without the fear.

THE RETURN: Returning to Los Angeles with my newfound strength.

MASTER OF TWO WORLDS: As a writer spread the message for all to hear.

I've found it remarkably scary that everything in this guide can be accounted for in my life in a progressive narrative form. Maybe, since I'm a writer, I was able to notice it's impact on my own life story - plus knowing that psychologists use it to chart their patients shows that there is merit to it. The first time I noticed this was when I started seeing a string of coincidences in my life when I was nineteen years old. The structure of the journey was inspired by BOTH real life stories and mythological tales.