Getting from point A to point B is NOT always a "journey."

Good morning!

The tiny little dictionary I have in my work desk defines the word "journey" as "to travel."

I bring this up because the word "journey" has become one of those go to words that's being used WAY too much.

Don't believe me?  Okay, ponder this:  Recently I completed...sort of...Gold's Gym 12 week body challenge.  I've now been asked to write an essay detailing my "journey" during the challenge.

I'm not going to address the fact that the gym has given me HOMEWORK.  Not today anyway.

I know why there's tape over Simon's mouth...Paula used the word "JOURNEY" once too often.

This request is just one in a very long line to things that have now been labeled a journey.  I'm not sure, but I believe we have Paula Abdul to blame for this over use of the word.  If you recall, some time in the middle seasons of "American Idol" Paula Abdul started using the phrase, "Your journey with us is over."  As if that wasn't bad enough, Ryan Seacrest, that pocket sized Peter Pan that is going to use his elfin magic to some day rule us all, picked up the phrase and now, though Paula is a faint memory in American Idol history, the concept of the "journey" sticks with us every single week.

I suppose you could make an argument that contestants on American Idol do go through a journey of sorts.  Maybe you could argue that their transformation from unknown to household-name-for-about-three-weeks is a journey. 

You can fit Ryan in your pocket and
carry him around!

But really, is EVERYTHING a journey?

I caught myself saying the following the other day:



The difference between Dobby
the House Elf
and Ryan Seacrest?



My son's journey is going to take him down paths that might not seem normal to most of my relatives.

Yes, I actually uttered those words in conversation.

And yes, I do feel really, really stupid for saying such a completely ridiculous thing out loud.

What I should have said is this:  "My son is NOT going to be a pastor or a parochial school teacher.  He will probably wind up managing an underground rock band and will, at some point in his life, lose and eye while in a mosh pit.  My very conservative relatives are not going to understand that, so I'm telling them that he wants to be a high school English teacher."

The truth is, Skippy is not on some journey to his future.  Skippy likes to go to concerts at The Rave.  He likes being in mosh pits.  He loathes going to school.  If he has a thought about his future, it generally involves what the next concert is going to be, or what the Summerfest line up is going to be. 

So he's not on a journey.  He's hanging out in his basement lair and treading water in school until he's completed the credits he needs to be out of school.  Then he'll tolerate college only until he finds a job that will pay him enough so he can move out of his in our basement and into someone else's basement.  It's not a journey.  It's getting from point A to point B.

Just like the Gold's Body Challenge was not a journey for me.  It was getting from point A to point B and hopefully losing some weight in the process.  I did find out some things about myself, both physically  (I have arthritis, and I won't die if I run for three minutes in a row)  and mentally  (My brain is not as smart as my body when it comes to running on a treadmill because my brain does not believe that a fluffy girl like me CAN run.  Note, I said, CAN, not SHOULD.  Two different things entirely.  Just because I CAN doesn't mean I SHOULD.)

Not everything is a journey.  Not even travel.  Driving to your mother's house on Easter is NOT a journey.  Unless your mother lives in Argentina and you live in Alaska.  And you travel by stagecoach and it takes you two months.  Then it might be a journey.  Other wise, you're just taking a trip.

So I'll be writing my essay at some point.  I think it's due in a month.  And yes, I am one of those people who did everything at the last minute.  But I will NOT use the word "journey." 

At least, not if I can help it.