Once we accept uncertainty, a second insight follows: the journey is not merely toward a destination but toward a self. When the endpoint is unknown, choices along the way—what work we attempt, what values we keep, what risks we tolerate—become the real architecture of identity. The traveler is shaped by the traveling.
You can see this in ordinary transitions: a student changes majors after one internship, a new parent redefines ambition, an immigrant discovers belonging in unexpected neighborhoods. The original plan fades, yet the person becomes more coherent. Sandburg’s phrase suggests that direction is sometimes the byproduct of movement, not the prerequisite for it. [...]