Finding Joy in the Journey

"The joy is in the journey, the struggle is part of the joy, and the final destination is not an end but another beginning of another journey." - Kathy Boyd Fellure

The road of life has a plethora of avenues and exit ramps at our disposal as we take time to get off of the main highway. Our sights can be set on one thing only for our sights to catch something out of the peripheral view a day later. Next thing we know we're taking a scenic route that either leads back to the original highway or leads to a new highway altogether. The road of life doesn't have a GPS that tells you exactly what exits to take, what streets to turn on and where to park. I'm sorry, I should rephrase that, the road of life does have a GPS that tells you exactly where to go if you follow every direction to the T. 

Let's say you enroll yourself in a traditional four-year university. You've decided what you're area of study is going to be upon acceptance. After you meet with your academic advisor you have the map of courses that you have to successfully complete in the next four years in order to earn your degree. It seems simple enough, right? Go to school, learn, study, take exams, pass the courses and onto the next set the next semester. Eight semesters and the seemingly endless hard work through the blood, sweat and tears pays off. Now here's what the map didn't show. The map doesn't say anything about the people you'll meet along the way. The friends you'll make who you embark with on spontaneous day trips off campus to go see your favorite band live in concert. Or the road trips to the mountains for a weekend to decompress and get away from it all. There are also the not-so-great decisions such as deciding to sleep in an extra hour instead of going to your 8 AM algebra lecture because when you woke up you saw that it was cloudy and cold outside. They're detours you wouldn't consider taking until you've come up to the sign on the road. 

The quote above by Kathy Boyd Fellure has been my life's mantra as an adult. The truth is finding joy along the way can be difficult when it seems like we aren't going anywhere meaningful. I know throughout my life, especially in my early 20's, it was easy to feel discouraged and depressed over the fact that I wasn't where I thought I would be in life. At times I felt like I wasted my time pursuing avenues that led to nowhere. I thought going to school to pursue my dream job of becoming a professional sports broadcaster was going to be the only thing I did for the rest of my life. When I got to college, I realized I despised sitting in lectures and going to school. It felt like torture having to sit in a classroom with no windows and none of my friends there to keep me entertained. It was a different realm compared to high school. However, if I didn't go on the journey when I did, I wouldn't have known how much I hated dedicating more than half of my time to studying and sitting in lectures. I changed my major three times in three years in hopes that I would stumble upon something I would enjoy doing. After strike three I decided to go the "untraditional route" and drop out of college to work odd jobs that paid minimum wage or less. Doing this taught me more about life than college ever did, and I have found gratitude for this somewhat chaotic stretch of my life.

Entering the workforce at a young age taught me another valuable lesson, and another mantra that I live by. When an opportunity presents itself, the worst thing that can happen is being told "no". Michael Jordan put it as you only miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take. Being told "no" is not the worst thing in the world. I've found that it can lead to better opportunities that we don't see right away if we have an open mind. That doesn't mean that opportunity will never present itself again either. Sometimes the timing isn't right, and we have to wait for a later opportunity to present itself again. We can't let discouragement prevent us from opening the door to a new pathway.

Even when the journey doesn't go the way we had hoped, it's important to find joy in it. At some points it won't be noticeable right away. At other points it'll be all we can focus on. Everything happens for a reason. As we continue navigating the road of life, we'll see the joy come out of discouraging moments, even tragic ones. It comes with time and experience. As you go on with your day, and year, I want you to ask yourself this question: how did you find joy in the journey today, this week, this month and so forth. Maintain focus on the positive things and don't let the downsides push you down. Let the downsides motivate you to get back up and try again and keep trying until you either get what you want or decide to pursue something else entirely. Life is too short to let the struggles stop us from finding joy in this journey. The joys and struggles are what make our personal journeys our journey unique from anyone else's.