“The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”
Lao-Tzu
When I lived in Japan as a college senior, I took one step that changed my life.
I was adrift in the many parties and clubs Tokyo had to offer, just wishing to go far, far away from my family. One night in December, in the midnight hour of Harvard’s GSAS application deadline, I rode full-speed on the back of my boyfriend’s motorcycle to Tokyo’s 24-hour post office. A few months later, I came back from an evening of clubbing to find, in a thick envelope lying on my bed, the acceptance letter that made me fall to my knees in thanks. My wish came true. Only, after it did, I began to miss home.
The real journey of the past two decades has taken place within me, although I’ve had more than ten addresses, seven jobs, and two graduate degrees. That’s just it: as long as what I pursued over the miles were top honors, a great career, or social acceptance, I was really going nowhere. No, that one step I took when I was twenty years old only changed my life because after it came many other steps that each reaffirmed my belief in myself. So, at mile, say, four hundred and thirty-five of my thousand-mile journey, I’m standing still and, looking around me at the landscape of my past, I sigh, “With each step, I’m closer to home.”
