I recently saw a meme by an anonymous author that read, “we do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy.” I found it really funny and particularly telling. Supposedly, if the author had known beforehand that it would not be easy, she or he would not have gotten involved.
This is not exactly the case with my business school journey at Lagos Business School. I did not think it would be easy. Why would I think that? I had read and heard people narrate their experiences. I knew it was not going to be a thoroughfare. But I also certainly did not imagine that it would be this intensive. I was expecting some “breathing space”, like a cross country journey where you travel a distance and take breaks at intervals, not the ‘even speed marathon’ it is shaping up to be.
The book, Tuesdays with Morrie: an old man, a young man, and life’s greatest lesson by Mitch Albom, which we read for the course, The Nature of Human Beings, provided a sublime perspective to dealing with difficulties and difficult things. Morrie was a Professor who was diagnosed with a terminal illness and given what would have felt like no time to “get his affairs in order”. He had several options, one of which would have been becoming desolate and live out his life in misery. Who would have blamed him if his did? What was left of his life was a drudge, pain in the interim and a certain, unhappy end. However, instead of calling it quits and waiting to die, he decided to live the experience and live it to the fullest. Morrie understood that it was the journey, not the destination, that mattered most. “[Most of us] really don’t experience the world fully”, he admonished. “But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completely”.
Of course, the intensity of business school is nothing as debilitating, but the lesson is one I fully intend to adopt and live everyday, starting with my time at Lagos Business School. I wake up everyday, determined to immerse myself in everything, the learnings, the interactions, the collaborations, the networking. Each and everyday, I remind myself of the words of 2 writers. “The true pleasure …comes not from simply winning but from …overcom(ing) adversity to win in the end. The joy …is never the final destination, it’s the journey”, posited Jim Caple, a Sportswriter. Brandon Sanderson, a fantasy and science fiction writer, went further, “so, does the destination matter? Or is it the path we take? I declare that no accomplishment has substance nearly as great as the road used to achieve it. We are not creatures of destinations. It is the journey that shapes us. Our callused feet, our backs strong from carrying the weight of our travels, our eyes open with the fresh delight of experiences lived”.
I am committed to living this great journey, I will experience it to the fullest. The destination, the fulfilment of this journey will only ice this cake.
Financial Accounting