How do I survive transitions? Being sent home from school to my family, injuring my knee and having to rest for weeks, and finishing school online. One word: goals. Not really a specific overall goal but a quest to always have a purpose in every change.
Change feels like dropping the TV remote and letting the buttons change the channel for you.
When I was sent home two-thirds of the way through the semester, I grieved over lost friends, lost memories, and lost campus Dining Common cookies. But once I put my glasses back on, I could see all the opportunities.
What goals could I make? Get a job at Publix, work for my brother in construction, study Spanish with a native speaker, train horses again, go running with my mom and sister, write magazine articles and have them published.
If I finished every goal, would I be satisfied? Can my quest ever end?
Be real! I didn’t finish all my goals.
I worked only one job for my brother and, since I’d never ridden a zero-turn lawn mower, a tree may have been nicked and the grass looked like a bad haircut. My Publix application never amounted to anything, including money. My horse training job didn’t happen because everyone went underground. I never talked to my native Spanish-speaking friends, besides a short conservation including “hola” and “adiós.”
But did my goals end? No! The quest was still on.
I rode horses with my family every Saturday.
Instead of a Publix job, I started a small dog breeding business by investing in a new member of the family, a cavalier puppy.
Though I never spoke with a native speaker, I studied Spanish by video chatting with a friend once a week and watching movies and listening to music in Spanish.
Writing magazine articles was replaced by writing a book about my grandparents, overviewing their lives after a five-hour interview.
“The Thundering Three,” the running group made up of my mom, sister, and me, ran down the three-mile road four times a week. The only bad side of running was our neighbors who thought we were bored out of our mind in quarantine.
But is the goal really to finish the goal? The word I would use is not goals but quests. A goal is temporary, but a quest is eternal. The ultimate quest is always having a dream, because the journey isn’t half as fun as the dream.
Start your quest list today!
Bucket list ideas from mine to yours
Travel to every church that has the same name as your church
Attend a Christian conference
Try learning a second language
Read the Bible three times through before you graduate
Start a small business
Take an exercise or dance class
Run in a race (specifically a mud or color run)
Go to Israel
Travel to every state
Go on a cruise
Memorize a book of the Bible
Join a writers’ club
Go white water rafting
Go on a deep-sea fishing trip
Go to a production of your favorite musical
"A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." - Proverbs 16:9