In late 2018, the city of Munich started renovating its glyptotheque, the museum holding a variety of ancient sculptures. The scaffolding went up, the machines got to work, and around the construction site, a big banner read: “Reopening in 2020.”
Back then, I passed by the building almost every day, and each time I thought: “Man, this is gonna take forever.” Of course, life went on, and so did I. I wrote my Master’s thesis. I graduated. We had a tiny pandemic, and I entered a long-distance relationship.
When I next took a conscious stroll around the building with a friend, the year was 2022 — and despite a 6-month delay, the glyptotheque had reopened over a year ago. That “forever” went by pretty fast.
Don’t dread the long road that lies ahead. You’ll be 500 miles along before you know it, and by the time you remember to look back, you’ll find plenty worth missing that you’ve left behind.