The Journey or The Destination?

As of lately, it seems like I'm encountering a lot of people who are finally finding the path of life they believe they should be traveling. This is true for me too.
It's weird that it's taken so long to feel this way, but it's not too surprising. I expect there will be many more twists and turns ahead.

When we were in high school, we began the journey of choosing what direction we wanted to head. For some of us, I'm sure it seemed like there was no other option than college. For others, there might have been literally a world of opportunities. For me specifically, I choose to come to Millersville for nothing but selfish reasons. Looking back, I'm ridiculously thankful it actually played out to my advantage instead of the drastic path it could have went. I wanted to be a teacher, again for selfish reasons. I've been lucky enough to have encountered some awesome teachers throughout my life and one day I thought, "Hmm... I could do that." It was indeed self-centered at first, but when others began telling me I should become a teacher, I began to wonder if maybe I could be cut out for the job.
Actually, ever since I was a little girl, I dreamed I would become a math professor at PSU. That dream died in the eighth grade when my math teacher said, "You're terrible at math! You'll never be able to be a professor!" We won't get into all of the extrinsic motivating factors that forever ruined my hopes and dreams of becoming a math professor, but her words will forever stick with me. I quickly knew one thing was certain: I never wanted to be the teacher that she was.
Fast forward a few years and I was in high school realizing I need to apply to colleges and choose a major. I knew I didn't have to have a major to start necessarily, but I wanted to have a goal to aim for. I applied to Millersville's history education program because I loved history. Although accepted, a week before we arrived here in August of 2008, I told them I wanted to change my major to English ed. I like English a smidgen more than history. That decision changed my entire life path. 
First semester here, I had four of my five classes with the same group of girls. We quickly became the best of friends. Since then, for the most part, we've all been taking this walk through our education together. But as we got older, took different classes, and moved around, we began to realize although we were all aiming towards becoming English teachers, we were all on very different journeys.
Even now, in the last final semesters, I'm finding that some of my great friends and peers realize they aren't cut out to be teachers or it's reconfirmed that they're on the right track. I experienced the same feelings last semester. (Something I had kept from many of my friends because I feared what they'd say.) I kept it well-hidden, did my work and finished another checklist of classes I needed to graduate. When this fall semester started, everything began to change. Something literally felt different in me. I had passion again. For teaching, for English, for life. I began talking to people about the emotions I felt last semester and realized many of them were worried about that this semester. It's scary and overwhelming, but like everything else in life, we aren't alone. Someone has, or is, experiencing the same feelings and emotions. 
For me, it was the past week when I finally had my epiphany. I'm sure many of you are even thinking now that I've been talking about this for awhile, but it was literally yesterday that I sat here and realized that I'm exactly where I should to be. I have a conflict of interests with my own past and I'm constantly wondering if all my decisions today are based off of the ones of my past. (If you ever want a great conversation to share over coffee, I'll tell you my entire theory about this.) But yesterday, I heard a song that got me thinking about the past again. And for some reason, I didn't have the same panic-stricken feeling that I get when I remember the way things used to be. Instead, I felt an odd serenity in life. A moment later, a quote was placed in front of me that read, "Your past is just a story. And once you realize this, it has no power over you." I literally felt freed in a celebratory moment of ah-ha realization.

I could make you a plot chart of my life and all it would do is tell you a story from start to finish. So I began to consider which is more important; is it the journey or the destination? So often we hear that it's the trip, not the end result. But the road I've been on has been a roller coaster and I although I see the end destination and I'm excited to get there, I want to keep on riding for a little while more.
The conclusion I've come to? ...We wouldn't be nearly as excited to get to the destination if we didn't have the journey. The adventure needs to have purpose and intention. The two of them have to coexist for it to be worthwhile, for life to have meaning.
So grab a friend, take a seat, scream and yell, laugh and cry, and hold on tight for this roller coaster of life.