I've Finally Arrived...Or Have I?

As I look forward to completing my MBA and starting my new job, I can't help but feel a sense of finally having arrived.  After nearly two years of what was both an overwhelming and tremendously rewarding experience, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, the finish line, so to speak - my objective will have been accomplished.  I made it, right?  I can finally relax and enjoy the fruits of my labors. 

But wait a minute - something about this moment feels familiar, as though I've been here before.  It seems as though I've been through a tunnel and crossed a finished line just like this in the past.  As I wonder why, I realize it's because I've had these same thoughts every time I accomplished some major goal in my life.  And each time it happens I think, "Whew, I'm finally done.  I made it."  Only to find that I'm not really done after all - there is another mountain to climb on the horizon.  It happened when I graduated from high school.  It happened when I completed my two-year ecclesiastical mission in Texas.  It happened when I moved out of my parents house and staked out on my own.  It happened when I got married and started a family.  It happened when I graduated from UC San Diego and started a professional job.  And now, as I close in on my final classes in the MBA program, I cannot help but think it's happening again.

But I'm not really done, am I?  No, I suppose not.  But that's okay, because if there's anything I've learned from this, it is that the benefit is not in having arrived, it's in having taken the journey to get there.  I'm not sure what's next on the horizon, but if it's anything like what I've done in the past, I'm sure the view from the top of that mountain will be just as majestic and well worth it.