The Journey is the Reward

Here is a short story. When I was studying computer science at the university, there was a course with this borderline weirdo teacher teaching algorithmic. He really was a brain. That wasn’t an easy course, and it had a bad reputation among students. At the beginning of the semester, we were around thirty people who were attending. As we progressed into the semester, students would stop attending, finding the guy too weird and bad at teaching. I kept going until the end of the semester. One day, only eight people were attending the class. Poor teacher, people didn’t like him; he really wasn’t good at teaching. In the middle of one of his class, in front of the very few of us, he took a pause, looking at us, one by one, and said: “even if I’m alone, I’ll come over here and keep teaching what I have to teach”. Then he turned back to the blackboard and continued scribbling. I wasn’t sure at that time what to think of his words. We thought it was funny. I still think of this story today, and I find some inspiration in it.

When I’m writing and posting my work online, I often see myself as this teacher. Sure it is fun to have a big audience, get some attention, and maybe receive a comment here and there. After all, what is this all about if nobody pays attention? Well, it is still valuable, for me, the writer. You see, one of the takeouts from this short story above is simple: the journey is the reward. It doesn’t really matter if nobody comes and reads my stuff here or there. What matters is the process and the thinking that took place behind my writing. It’s all the small moments where I had to pause, think, read, learn and write. It’s about feeling creative. Alive. The rest is just another tiny drop in the numeric ocean. A few will taste it, and most won’t. That’s the life of a blogger and a writer in a sea of abundance. So, I’ll keep doing it, no matter what.