What is more important: the journey or the destination?

Tainan Park Elementary School

One day when I was in the third grade, our teacher announced that we were going to take a field-trip. Every student got excited (I believe it was my first field-trip!) We couldn’t wait!

The day finally came. Everyone brought a lunchbox and proudly displayed it on the top of her desk. Everyone was in a good mood. We talked louder, we laughed harder, and we patiently waited for classes to end.

Finally, around 11 am, our teacher told us to line up outside in the hallway. “Don’t forget to bring your lunch,” she said.

We ran, giggled, and formed lines. We marched behind our teacher, passing several streets. Twenty minutes later (seemed forever) we were so tired that we could hardly lift our feet. When our teacher said that we had arrived at our destination, everyone cheered excitedly.

But our excitement didn’t last long. Something didn’t seem right. We looked at each other with question marks in our eyes. Where are we? Why this place was so familiar?

A minute later, one classmate shouted, “School!”

We turned our head in unison to where she was pointing, and saw our school buildings 30 feet away.

What? This is our field-trip destination? We felt being cheated. No longer smiling, each of us found a spot to sit and quietly ate her lunch.

After lunch, it took 3 minutes for us to get back to school.

So, what is more important: the journey or the destination? On that particular day, to be honest, nothing was more important than the lunchbox my mom had prepared for me. Our family was poor; my mom didn’t want me to look bad in front of my classmates, so the food in that lunchbox was more expensive than usual. It was one of the best lunches I had ever had.

(The name of our school is “Park Elementary School”, because it was located right next to a park. )

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