The Destination

As the train caught up speed, leaving nothing behind but empty tracks, I sat there. Looking out the window not knowing whether to focus on the outside world flying by, or my own reflection. I figured it didn't matter so I continued to switch between the two, every so often I would smile at myself as I thought of my destination.

I knew I'd be there soon, I could tell the train was trying it's hardest to get me there, huffing and puffing along the rails that guide it to my destination. every now and then we would reach a station. I would watch as people shuffled in and out of the steel car that was taking me to my destination. I thought surely other people had destinations too, but that was their own problem, not mine, and not the train's.

The train left the stage, caught up to speed, and I was getting closer and closer with each "thump" of the rail ties buckling under the pressure of the shiny rectangle taking me to my destination.

I figured I'd looked at my own face enough so I turned away from the window, scanning the crowd of people who were on a journey of their own. I noticed a few things while I sat there observing: Namely, the people. people who all had a life, family, people who they loved, and people who loved them. They all were experiencing the same situation as myself, but to each and every person, they had their own interpretation of the travel to my destination. no two people had the same destination, maybe the same location, but not the same destination.

you see a destination is far more than a location. a destination consists of reason, journey, and of course, location. Reason is the cause to your destination. two people go to a bank, same location but because one is there to withdraw money to by their kid a camera and another is there to rob the place, they have different destinations. Journey is the other factor in a destination, how did you get there? These two bank goers, the withdrawaler and robber, how did the happen at arrive at the same bank? well the father wishing to buy a camera for his son had a father too. his father bought him a camera once but that's irrelevant at the moment, what isn't irrelevant is how he bought the camera, he withdrew from the same bank as his son would all those years later. now the robber, he spent months planning the perfect heist, learning the guard rotations, the average time of near by stoplights, how far was the nearest police station, he had chosen his destination. but life doesn't work like that. it turns out another thief was planning an attack the day before his and successfully robbed the entire joint, leaving robber A with a master plan but nothing to steal. so instead of scrapping 4 months of work he quickly tried to adapt the plan to another bank to keep with his deadline. he was hasty, he was an idiot to rob a bank in the first place but this was just stupid. it doesn't matter if he was successful or not, he wasn't, what matters was his journey to get there. his true destination was jail i suppose.

as I stood there at the entrance to this metal alloy carriage, again switching between the world outside my railcar and the way my hair fell over my forehead, I smiled about my destination. the train came to a stop and I stood there while the doors slid open, I stepped out and sort of laughed, though you might think this is the end of my destination, this ride was only a portion of the whole shabang, i dont know when I'll get there, or where it is. you see, it's not in my control in the first place so why worry, I only knew that I need to have good reason, make the most of my journey.