Part Three - It took me over 3,000 days to finish my degree. Here are my top 3 lessons from the longest journey of my life.

Over the past two weeks, I’ve been sharing some of the most important lessons that I’ve learned from my long journey toward graduation. The first lesson focused on how mentors helped me uncover the roadmap necessary to graduate and continuously motivated me to overcome the obstacles I faced. The second lesson expanded on how I broke down the seemingly enormous task of graduating, into lesser more attainable tasks. Ultimately, teaching me how the combination of small tasks put together, can lead to big results. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to discover these lessons so early in my life, as they will undoubtedly continue to play an important part throughout my career. However, the third lesson that I will discuss in this article is probably my favorite.

This final lesson is one that I discovered as I was sitting in the crowd full of excited students, eager to cross the stage and receive their diplomas. As I “patiently” waited for my turn to cross the stage, I came across a surprising finding. I always expected that once I finally graduated, I would feel a sense of relief, like a massive weight had been lifted from my shoulders. To my amazement, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of encouragement...

I’ve run some pretty long distances in my life and at the end of a good run, I always felt a relief that it was over. Don’t get me wrong, I felt accomplished and satisfied with my effort at the end. But I was in no way eager to continue running once I was done. This was the same feeling I was expecting to encounter once I graduated. Instead, what I felt was something similar to that of your first view at the top of a mountain. The hike up the mountain is usually difficult but there is an indescribable feeling once you reach the peak and take in the views. You feel energized to go on the next big hike that will unveil another breathtaking view. This is the best way I could describe the feeling I felt as I crossed that stage.

I believe the main driver for this difference in emotion was simply my why. Going back to my examples, I would typically go on these runs to cross an item from my list, like “Exercise Today...check mark.” Whereas the hike was pursued with a more meaningful reason behind it. When I reflect on my own personal why for pursuing my degree, I can think of three clear reasons driving me toward that goal.

1. I wanted to make my family proud.
2. I didn't want to waste the sacrifices made to afford me this opportunity.
3. I needed to set up my family for continued success in this country.

These reasons are what continued to push me through those late nights as I sat alone at my desk. What pushed me to continue traveling from work, to school, and eventually back home. What pushed me to put in that extra effort on my assignments despite a long week of work. That brings me to my third lesson, Find your Why, Find your Drive.

As I stood on that stage and looked out into the crowd where my family was sitting, I was looking at a view I had never seen before. At that moment, I was standing on the highest educational peak my family had ever reached. And that encouragement I felt, now motivates me to want to continue climbing higher. I feel encouraged to find the next degree, role, challenge, skill, or whatever life may have in store for me. I know I'll be able to accomplish any goal that I set out for myself, as long as I have a clear reason for why I am pursuing it.

But how did I find my why? As previously mentioned, my personal why was deeply rooted in the sacrifices made and the future well-being of my family. I think many times it’s essential to understand the long-term effect that reaching your goal will produce. When it came to my degree, I knew that in the long run, this would help continue to open doors in my career. Ultimately, setting up my family with stability and security. Understanding there is a long-term impact, greater than the short-term effort it will take to reach it, is vital. For example, if you are embarking on a new health-related goal, focus less on the immediate changes your body may experience and focus more on the benefits you stand to gain years from now. Similarly, the career goals I now set out to achieve are not focused on the potential rewards I may obtain in the coming months. But instead, on the rewards that my future generations may reap during their lives. Knowing that my why is deeper than the present moment will prevent present obstacles from derailing me.

I also believe I found peace in knowing that my why was focused on the future. Sometimes, when we set out to accomplish a goal for a short-term reward, we self-impose a tighter deadline to reach it. We want the short-term reward as quickly as possible and we may become unmotivated when it begins to take too long. I came across this many times during my educational journey. I wanted my degree at that moment and realizing how long I still had to go, stripped me of my motivation to continue. During these moments, I turned back to the reasons why I needed to get my degree and the long-term impact it would have.

If you’re looking for resources to begin the journey of finding your personal why, I recommend the book, Find Your Why: A Practical Guide for Discovering Purpose for You and Your Team by Simon Sinek. This book acts as a practical toolkit for uncovering your personal why, both professionally and personally. It will also go into detail on how doing so can ultimately lead you greater success and happiness. One of my favorite quotes from the book is,

“If we want to feel an undying passion for our work, if we want to feel we are contributing to something bigger than ourselves, we all need to know our WHY.” - Simon Sinek

Two movies also jump out as valuable examples of the benefits of discovering your personal why. The first movie is The Pursuit of Happyness. If you've already seen this one, then you know it's a real tear-jerker. If you haven't seen it, the movie follows the life of Chris Gardner (played by Will Smith) as he tries to create a better life for himself and his young son in San Francisco, California. Throughout the movie, you'll see difficult scenes of struggle and hardship as Chris works valiantly to improve the situation for his family. Despite all the doors shut and odds against them...the movie shows how an unbreakable personal why, can help you overcome any obstacle you face. The second movie is 42. This movie is a biopic of the legendary life of Jackie Robinson (played by Chadwick Boseman). The movie follows Jackie as he breaks down Major League Baseball's infamous color barrier by becoming the first African-American player in the MLB. Despite the brutal push-back, racism, and hardships Jackie faced while on the Brooklyn Dodgers, he knew he was playing for something greater. His personal why was to be a trailblazer so that anyone, despite their race or ethnicity, could reach the highest levels of baseball. Beware...this movie is another tear-jerker.

“A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.” - Jackie Robinson

THANK YOU to all who have joined me on this journey and for investing your time in learning more about me. I feel empowered to continue sharing more about my story and the experiences I will continue to have throughout my life. Writing these articles and reflecting on the top three lessons was an almost uplifting process. One that has allowed me to grasp that all the hard work, all the long nights, and the longest journey of my life...was all worth it.

In case you’d like to read or reference back to the first two articles, here are the links:

• https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/sebastian-galvez-1606_first-article-alert-im-so-excited-activity-7100192147684868096-4WVt?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
• https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/sebastian-galvez-1606_part-2-is-here-thank-you-to-all-who-read-activity-7102728571349004288-quVs?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop