Since high school I have been focused on one thing, getting into veterinary school. I spent those four years stressing over getting a B on a test, joining every club I could that I thought would look good on a resume, and neglecting things that I did just for fun. I put so much focus on the future that I forgot to live in the present. I was hurrying through life just waiting for my “real” life to start. This pattern continued until my second year of college when I started to truly enjoy the courses I was taking and joining clubs for fun and not just because they would look good on a resume. I started to realize that life isn’t only about the “end goal”. Don’t get me wrong, it is a great practice to keep long-term goals fresh in mind, but that should not stop you from enjoying the journey to that goal. By enjoying the present and embracing the journey, I learned to pursue things that I had a passion for, even if they didn’t “check a box” on an application. In slowing down to “smell the roses” we can find beauty in unexpected places and the world starts to seem a little bit bigger when we don`t have tunnel vision. More often than not, goals change before we cross the finish line. If we spend our lives waiting for the future, by the time we reach the finish line, if it does not look the way we expected, it may leave us lost and without answers. My long-term goal hasn’t changed much, but now I am learning American Sign Language, learning to ride English, and have embraced my not-so-green thumb in trying my hand at keeping house plants alive. I have branched out to explore things that were not part of the “master plan” and have found new passions and goals in doing so. If you get too fixated on the finish line everything else becomes a blur and you will miss one of the best parts of life; living, learning, and making mistakes.
