Sunday, January 10, 2016

The Road and the Journey



photo by Jen Houlette

"Never let a stumble in the road be the end of your journey." ~unknown


The journey is sometimes winding and often contains bumps. But even the smallest stumble can be navigated depending on the road taken.

Will the stumble be a road block?
Or will it simply be a detour?

The ever-changing, sometimes disconnecting, never-ever-the-same landscape of technology in which my journey currently resides is always full of bumps.

Whether it's a slow connection, severed fiber cables in the area, deleted users that need re-adding, websites that aren't working but they were yesterday, questions without answers, lack of time, etc. ..... there's one thing that doesn't change --- there will always be stumbling blocks, bumps in the road, unexpected detours, and an ever-winding road.

It comes with the job. No day is ever the same. And the thing that makes it impossible to just "go through the motions" is the same thing that makes it exciting and sometimes scary. I find myself thinking - "What vehicle did I jump in and what road am I going down?"

But one thing I do know is this...... even though I may have an unclear road map and there will undoubtedly be bumps no matter what side road I find myself on, each time I find myself on a rocky road I have a choice.

A choice to see it as a detour on my way to a great destination along the journey.

Or a choice to see it as a disastrous road block that stops me in my tracks and disables me from continuing down the path to greatness.


I will choose the first.

Because a detour is sometimes an opportunity - a Plan B - a better way - a chance to round up road-side helpers. :)

Because a detour is not a dead end. It's a chance to try again, to turn the day around in a positive way.

Because a detour is the perfect way to model resilience, flexibility, and vulnerability.


So I will continue on the journey using this quote as motivation to keep going, keep trying, and keep my head up when things don't go perfectly on the daily road of the journey I'm choosing to take. Join me!

                "Never let a stumble in the road be the end of your journey." ~unknown









2 comments:

  1. This is such an encouraging post, Jen! I say to kids a lot: "This is not a roadblock. This is a speedbump." So often we admire the problem instead of changing gears and defeating it. This is a great post for a new year!
    Jennifer

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you. I hope to model that for students as well. I can always use my examples to encourage them to keep going when they hit a problem that slows them down.

      Delete