Once you get on...

I guess when I started to make the decision to leave everything behind that I had been training for to pursue medical school, the conceptual framework of the journey was a mystery. I hadn't really taken the time to ponder the ups and downs, but only the fact that I am going to do it. The further I get into this process, the more it seems to be a metaphor of a trans-atlantic voyage that millions of colonists have made during the Age of Colonialism.
Those individuals left everything behind in the hopes that what they were heading towards might be a better life for their family and themselves. Perhaps what connects it the most is that the journey was fraught with peril, the destination wasn't a destination at all, but the beginning of another long, grueling life, but most importantly.. once they left port, there was no turning back. They couldn't go to the Captain and politely ask if they could turn around.. this wasn't what they had expected. In that journey into a completely unfamiliar world though, lyed a couple constants. The first constant was quite simply the journey itself. No matter what they did, they were on it. Another constant, equally as important, is the ship. Everything they did depended on that ship being seaworthy. When things went wrong.. they had to adapt and overcome for the decision to not fight was simply death in the vast openess of the Atlantic. Storms, sickness, food shortages, disease, etc. were all issues that the colonists had to face. They'd start looking at a beautiful horizon, the storm would kick in all that loomed was the torrential rains, wind and seas, but on the other side of that lyed the journey, and the destination.
Perhaps what I find most intriguing about this metaphor is how the colonists had no idea when the voyage would bring land in their sights. They had to keep on fighting, keep on keepin on, they had to persevere because failure was not an option.