When I Come Home

My dearest readers,

in the midst of wrapping up six years of education I had immanently realized what all is at stake and how difficult in a moment as such it can be to keep one’s focus on finishing accordingly when hitting the home stretch. Thinking back to the early beginnings, the course of all of it, the wild enduring ride all the way up to being steps away from closure is yet a thrill beyond words. All in the past brought me here, to the present day, where the outcome is all in my hands and will determine the hit or miss, proving whether all of it was worth it, and bring dead certainty, inevitably, when I come home!

Guy Pearce once said that “[t]he thrill of coming home has never changed,” because coming home means closure. It is not just the return from a long (life) journey, but proof of progress one personally made when floating through time—closure in the sense of finishing one’s work. And the outcome is able to express who you once were and who you became, a dark oak trunk, seared timbers, or a resolute desk. “It’s not how you start that’s important, but how you finish” (Jim George), because that only can render your rise or fall, or in the worst case your vapidity, when you cling to the words of B. B. King and the thrill is gone.

It is ever so significant that we keep this thrill alive, that we continue to push ourselves onto the home stretch, even when all hell may break lose and we drown in a maelstrom of expectations, pressure, frustration, disappointment, or all of the above. On the home stretch there is no one who can keep us from drowning, no one but ourselves. Our loved ones can pitch their inspiration, but the last long yards we have to walk inevitably. That’s why we need to keep our focus on managing these final steps, keep our cool, and keep our commitment on cruise control. “Finish the work, otherwise an unfinished work will finish you” (Amit Kalantri)—and all those who have been down that road will assure you that this is not a pleasant feeling.

Let ‘coming home’ be a blaze of glory that can kindle a fire you may have considered faded long ago. If you walk your last steps bear in mind where you once started and where you are today, yet let neither of it keep you from knowing which way you’re headed. “No one has a problem with the first mile of a journey. Even an infant could do fine for a while. But it isn’t the start that matters. It’s the finish line” (Julien Smith)—and, in that sense, it is all up to you whether you get to celebrate or be assured that you have wasted your time…the time will come, inexorably, and soon we all know, namely then, when we once more and ultimately come home.