In the summer of 2006, I came to the East Coast for the first time with my family. My parents decided we were going to rent a car and go road tripping through Pennsylvania and make our way to NYC. My grandpa loves history and decided he wanted to come with. Days into our little road trip, we got lost in Pennsylvania. This was before GPS and Apple Maps, so we had an actual paper map we were using (crazy, I know!). At one point, my dad got so frustrated with my grandpa because he had gotten us lost and started complaining about how we were not going to get to see everything at our destination because we had gotten delayed. My grandpa just looked at his son and said, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey”. This was one of the many pieces of wisdom he had dropped on us that day (disclaimer: he definitely didn’t make this up). In our delirious state (we had been in the car for 5 hours at this point), we all started laughing.
At that age, I thought my grandpa was crazy. I didn’t want to be stuck in a car for two more hours; I just wanted to arrive at the destination. As I have gotten older, I have realized that sometimes one needs to take a step back and appreciate the journey.
“I’m learning to see things from a different perspective and my thoughts and opinions are changing on a daily basis.”
This summer, I have had to remind myself multiple times that this journey is worth embracing and enjoying. Growing up in today’s world, we are all told one thing: you need to get a job right after college. Not going to lie, I am a part of MSBA for this very reason: I’m working toward building connections within the industry that I want to work in so I can get to my “destination”, which in this case is a job.
Sometimes it’s hard to take this big picture view and zoom in a little bit. MSBA has been amazing so far! But sometimes I feel like I’ve been doing what I need to do for the “destination” and not focusing on the journey. For me, there is no destination at the end of MSBA. I’m young, one of the youngest ones in our class actually. I will only be a junior when August rolls around, and I have two years before I need to arrive at my “destination”.
In this second half of the program, I’m going to focus more on the journey. I’m learning that there doesn’t always have to be a “destination”. In the past weeks, I have gotten to hear and learn from some of the best in our industry including Jason Belzer, Alex Rosen, and Mark Burns. I’ve been given the opportunity to visit the offices of the NBA, Wasserman, Fanatics, the New York Yankees, CAA, and many more. I’m interning at Excel Sports Management and I am getting the opportunity to contribute in a relevant way. I’ve even gotten to see some of my ideas come to fruition. Oh, and on top of all that, I have an amazing Mentorship Collective who have each helped me in different ways so far. I’m learning to see things from a different perspective and my thoughts and opinions are changing on a daily basis. Things are moving fast, and the summer is halfway over. If I don’t take the time now to enjoy this journey, I am going to regret it later. Moving forward, I’m going to keep the “destination” in the back of my mind and focus more on my journey.
From personal experience and watching others, I have learned that we are always thinking about what’s coming next in life. We are always focusing on that next “destination”, whether it be graduating high school, moving in at college, getting that first internship, graduating college, or getting a job. We don’t realize that we are on a constant “road trip” through life. Having goals is also really important, but you can’t forget to slow down and enjoy the small things on your way. I don’t remember exactly where we were headed that day in Pennsylvania, but I definitely remember that journey!