paper mountains

"To live only for some future goal is shallow. It's the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top. Here's where the things grow."
~Robert M. Prisig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I've been reading this book off and on since school started. It starts out as a story about a man and his son on a motorcycle road-trip. Before you know it, he has you contemplating Reason, Education, Quality and many other concepts of the higher altitudes, as he would say.
I was reading it just now to calm my nerves about this test I have in an hour. It was that gem that I quoted above that did it for me. I try to remember that I am learning this material so that I will be a safe nurse, and not so that I will pass the test. Today I wasn't able to get past the test. I have been a nervous wreck for some reason.
I now feel like I am ready to take this test and put it behind me. The test is just a few sheets of paper. It's the quality of what I have learned that will make a difference in the end.

(I wrote this before class this morning, but the website was being a little screwy, so I am reposting it now.)