Journey or Destination?

                              I know my last post was very unlike what I have posted all these days.They were just a conglomeration of the different thoughts I had..Everyone seems to be in a thoughtful and reflective mood nowadays. Maybe that is what PL does to you.So many things that I have been trying to observe this semester, thought I'd share my contemplations.

                   Sometimes, the journey is much more significant than the destination.No, always. Look at these situations.

You meet a friend who was in the same 12th standard classes as you.You start talking about what each other is doing nowadays. But have you ever noticed how small that conversation is? Because your this conversation immediately shifts to those "good old days"  and how much fun you had and then there is this period of silence. You are already back to that place and time.

Why,even when we are having a casual conversation with our long time friends,the conversation slips to the time we first met, our first thoughts, our first opinions before we knew them he way we know now . .the surprising fact? You are never bored of repeating this conversation and it brings a smile to your face in an effortless attempt.

 

Let me narrate an experience I had this semester which strengthened my ideas.

 

This semester we were divided into four batches in anticipation of the diploma students against the usual 3 till last sem. Result? There was no one in my batch who I knew too well and I was totally distraught at the fact that I am gonna be stark bored at the end of this semester. Maybe my journey had different plans. There were two guys I knew somewhat better than the others and the same, likewise. So,we kind of hung around together during practicals et al. We were similar in our thoughts and both of them  weren't people who would mock me for the way I do things so religiously because they do too. So it happened that we are the only people in the batch who performed the practicals properly and were considered prudent and responsible. The whole semester, the togetherness bonded us and practicals were much more fun. At the end of the sem, we had not only got A+ in most of our journals but had also earned the wealth of being in the good books of our teachers.

 

So what did I observe? We didn't be with each other in pursuit of the grades....our journey together led us to this result.

 

The point is all of us are so obsessed with materialistic things that we forget to notice the smallest things in life which can give us the same happiness. Most of the students in the same phase as mine are thinking about getting into a college committee, attend workshops so that it will give them that extra edge in the job interview. Me included. Accepted these things are important but so important that you consider everyone around you competition and forget that they are your friends first??Absolutely not. What we fail to realize is we are lucky to have got into this college, we are lucky that we have friends who understand us so well and that itself is a good sign and it would take us to the destination we want to reach.




Let's say that a person's intended destination is money...Lots of it..He will work really hard to get it. Maybe he would study and do various activities just for that.Once he gets it,more money. He will pursue money like nothing before.There will be a time where he has lots of money.That time, if that person looks back, what would he have missed?? ..He would have missed that small sign of someone wanting to know him,someone who wanted to have fun with him, that small innocent smile of a child, small gestures of love, the feeling of achievement when he learnt something new,the novelty of a subject maybe... not all of it but significantly yes. So even if he has the money,he doesn't have the satisfaction of having attained it nor did he enjoy the process of getting it.




The 12th standard classes were meant for us to get into the best colleges. but the journey gave us something much more invaluable..friendship.You may be taking your best friend for granted. But that journey gave you something..memories.


It is proved time and again that if we give importance to our journey and keep the destination in mind, along with the destination intended, by just one path we reach many more wonderful places. If the person hadn't been so obsessed with earning money, maybe he would have lots of money and people to enjoy it with. Maybe if he had given his friends some importance, they would have put their ideas together and earned money faster along with strengthening their relationship.




There is a journey, maybe the only one which all of us never want to end,an example which stares you at your face.....LIFE..Life is a journey from birth to death. If the destination was what mattered, we should have been running closer to death than away from it.Just like Harry Potter needs a happy memory to produce a patronus, we need happy memories too. We need people.We need love.We need those small happy feelings when someone praises us. We need that feeling of worthiness when we finish studying what we wished to finish that day. We need to make every journey of ours great just to enjoy the destination. Why, even when you wish to attain God, the journey is what makes us realize who He is, why we need Him, He exists. So when you attain him( by His grace), you have reached your goal with peace and realization.




Maybe we muggles don't have to fight dementors, but we do have to make our
"The Journey " worthwhile so that when it has to end, when death comes as is the nature's will, we not only have reached our intended destination but also have a reason to have taken the journey in the first place. :)