My Grandfather sat in his recliner flicking through the channels as I approached. Raising his shaggy salt-and-pepper eyebrows he cracked his thin lips into a smile. “Sit down, sit down,” he urged with his soft raspy voice as I leaned over him for a kiss. I sat on the floor and prepared for the onslaught of questions.
“Are you still in school?” He always starts with this one and progresses from there.
“How are your grades? When are you graduating?” Unfettered, I answered, “Gramp, college is about more than grades and graduating.”
Frustration darkened his brow and he prepared to rebut. “Your cousin James graduated last year and he’s…how old is James honey…he’s only 21 and now he’s going to work with NASA,” he replied with conviction.
Unconvinced, I pushed forward with my point. “I’m on my way, Gramp…everybody has to find their way in their own time.”
Having just read Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist,” my sense of the individual journey was renewed.
Coelho demonstrates the importance of new experiences and taking risks through the story of a sheperd’s dream to reach the Egyptian pyramids. Coelho calls this journey a quest for one’s “personal legend.” Though my cousin James’ personal legend may very well be taking him to NASA, mine is taking me elsewhere and I haven’t quite figured it out yet. But I’m going to enjoy my time on the way there.
As Coelho demonstrates at the conclusion of his novel, success doesn’t lie in any one major achievement but in the realization of each experience. It’s difficult to bridge the gap between my Grandfather’s emphasis on long-term achievement and my own desire to realize the potential of the moment. Somewhere in between lies the ideal; somewhere, there is a balance.
Coelho illustrates this when he sends the shepard to a grand palace to meet a king. The king sends him on a tour of the palace with a spoon full of oil in which he instructs the shepard to not spill a drop. When the shepard returns with the spoon of oil, unspilled, the king asks him what he has seen. Having fully concentrated on the spoon he hadn’t absorbed the grandeur of the palace. The king sent him off once more with the spoon full and instructed him this time to appreciate the beauty of his dwelling. Awed by what he’d seen the shepard returned with an empty spoon. Herein lies the challenge: to appreciate life in all moments while still focusing on striving towards a goal.
So while my grandfather is urging me forward, thinking that I’m dragging my heels unnecessarily, I’m learning to enjoy my moments and to seek after that impossible balance.
This attempted balance is being challenged more than ever in these final weeks of the semester. The clothes carelessly tossed to the floor of my bedroom and the dishes lining my counters are proof. A common denominator for us all this week is the culmination of the semester. For many of us, this means increased stress levels and hectic schedules. The combination of the finals, papers, family commitments, and job schedules can make it especially difficult to balance fully experiencing and enjoying life while focusing on the push forward. After all, the end seems so near. It’s tempting to plow through it without any thought of enjoying it. Enjoying finals week sounds like an oxymoron and I’m not suggesting it should resemble a week-long kegger, but squeezing in coffee with a friend or wrestling in the freshly fallen snow could do well to increase the chances of keeping a sane balance.
Christy McKinnon can be contacted at [email protected]