“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (Chinese: 千里之行，始於足下; pinyin: Qiān lĭ zhī xíng, shĭ yú zú xià; literally: “A journey of a thousand li starts beneath one’s feet”) is a common saying that originated from a famous Chinese proverb. The quotation is from Chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching ascribed to Laozi. This proverb means that we must begin something if we hope to finish it, something that takes a long time to get finished begins with one first step – Wikipedia.
As I pen my last blog as an Atlas Corps Fellow, I recall vividly when I sat in my room sometime in November 2014 in Durban South Africa, and came across the Atlas Corps Fellowship. I knew little or nothing about it then but decided to read more about what the Fellowship stood for and represented. The more I read, the more I got interested and then I decided to give it a try.
Weeks, months, and even years have come and gone and here I am in my room in New York, writing what could very well be my last blog as a Fellow. I look back and reflect on the journey so far, all the events that led to this point, and how the experience has been.
I often write and share about “Testing Assumptions”, and over the past couple of months, I have indeed tested many assumptions I once held about myself both personally and professionally. It has indeed been a great learning curve, a bitter-sweet experience filled with high and low points. Yet in spite of it all, I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything else in the world.
As the curtain slowly falls on my Fellowship year, I am grateful for everyone whom I shared this journey with and who contributed one way or the other to the experiences I had.
As I march on into the horizon of what the future holds, I am most certain that the Atlas Corps Fellowship has indeed prepared me for what is ahead, and I can’t wait to explore the possibilities that await.