I stand at a crossroads of my life. I finish grad school in less than a month. It has been a long journey, this one. It began over four years ago. I will have my masters degree in counseling.
I laugh sometimes at this–for in many ways I know less now than I did when I started. Yes, being let into the hallowed halls of hearts has humbled me. I find I do not judge as quickly, stereotype without thinking, assume I understand the whys and hows of others’ lives. For this I am grateful.
I am not the same person I was when I started. No, this journey has shaped me, bit by bit. Like exercise forms a muscle so my character has changed, altered. More grace has been added, insecurity has been stripped away (although I still struggle sometimes). I am more of who I am yet still not all I will become.
I had a vision when I set first foot on this road that I would end it with more answers than questions. But, no, this is the gift I did not expect. That this journey, above all, has taught me to ask more deeply, to question more thoroughly, to seek understanding as never before.
So I stand looking into the future. I am relieved to be here, glad to have made it to the next chapter, and yet disappointed in a way that once again life is not about closure but about continuing.
This I have learned: Whenever I finish a sentence with, “When I…” it is actually a line that will never be done. Life is one glorious run-on, full of hyphens, semi-colons, commas, ellipses. The only real period is our last breath.
Until then we are writing, writing, words criss-crossed over the page–our hearts held by the hand of the Author.
And only He can write “The End.”
