Last Monday, I did my longest drive ever in terms of distance. I drove for 417 km for almost 5 hours straight This is not my longest drive in terms of hours though as I’ve been stuck in traffic for 6 hours in the Philippines and that’s just a 137 km drive.

We went to Ottawa for the long weekend. Except for fatigue, cold and a $100 parking fine, the trip was awesome.

I’m not fond of driving, I don’t know why. Probably I’m still haunted by the traffic horror that is prevalent in the Philippines or probably I’d rather sleep or do something else than drive for hours. Since I’m the only driver in the family, I have no choice, I have to drive.

Oh, another reason why I hate driving is that whenever you drive, you are exposing your self to risks and I hate risks that involve life and safety. I’m a risk taker though in terms of opportunity and investment.

So we started our ride back home at around 5:17 PM. Traffic was good for the first three hours until our GPS re-routed us out of the highway to the country road so we can save 21 minutes then another re-route so we can save 5 minutes. Good thing we have a GPS otherwise, our trip will be longer.

I wanted to do a quick stop, I wanted to sleep, I wanted to just stop driving but I wanted to go home so bad so I kept on driving, my family was with me and I want them to be safe so I didn’t dare close my eyes except when blinking of course, and I can’t give up just because my back is aching, my right leg is tired and my jaw is numb chewing bubble gum as my goal is to finish my longest drive ever and in my mind this a new personal record worth achieving.

What’s my point? Driving is like living our lives.

We might not want it because of the trials we encounter.

We might get stuck from time to time but eventually, traffic will flow.

We can always do a quick stop but we are too stubborn and passionate to drive straight so we can reach our goals fast.

We may experience pain, numbness, fatigue but unless we push through, we won’t reach our destination.

We might want to rest or sleep, but we have a family to feed and to take care of.

We may expose ourselves to risks but like driving we can always be defensive, take security measures and be careful so we can mitigate those risks.

Lastly, even if we have set our destination, we can always take the country road rather than the highway so we can save time, think, recharge and enjoy. Most of the time, it’s not the destination that’s important, it’s the journey and the experience it brings.

Keep driving through life millennial friends.

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