Hiking in the mountains, a road trip through a faraway country, or camping with friends—it makes no difference to me. The fun often starts well in advance, when planning the routes to and at the destination.

When traveling with a caravan, for example, it is important not to blindly trust your stubborn navigation system’s suggestions for faster routes. If you do, you may suddenly find yourself on a narrow road, facing a very angry Italian who cannot get past. A few years ago, I learned quite a few new hand gestures in the half hour it took him to reverse his Fiat Panda about five hundred meters to a wider spot where I could pass.

On a motorcycle, by contrast, you can usually get through almost anywhere. Even the Col d’Artigaux in the Pyrenees—where, according to my navigation system, there was still asphalt fifteen years ago—is not a problem. During a vacation with friends, we ran into a man there on a “mountain unicycle.” He seemed to be having just as much trouble climbing up on that one-wheeled mountain bike as we had coming down between the stones and chunks of old asphalt.

And every now and then, you really cannot get through and have to turn back. No problem. The journey is the destination, and the ride back is often just as beautiful as the way there. After all, you see the surroundings from the other side.

Planning a study program is actually not that different from planning a beautiful trip. If you stick to the carefully designed, logical programs put together by program directors, you can reach your destination quickly. But if studying itself is your goal—if you are happy to take a bit longer, want to enjoy the diversity of the surroundings, and occasionally get stuck and have to turn back to look for a new path—then by all means choose your own route, put together your own flexible learning pathway, and enjoy the journey.

Boudewijn van Dongen is a professor of Process Analytics at TU/e. The views expressed in this column are his own.

This article was translated using AI-assisted tools and reviewed by an editor.