Life & Thoughts

All of us have heard “Life is a journey, not a destination” - infinite times.

As I stop and reflect, there have been quite a few moments in my life in which I wished I could go back in time and tell my younger self some things to do differently.

We are too busy trying to be always strong and chasing the next chapter of our life, that some of us never found time to be real happy. To sit back for a moment and take life as it unfolds. To live life instead of just breathing and surviving it.

It’s easier said than done, isn’t it?

Believe me, I’ve been in your shoes. I’ve spent so much of my adolescence and early 20s trying to get to the next best thing. The best in education. The best in career. The best in anything and everything. And each time I achieved my “best”, I wondered – Is this all, life is about? What’s next?

Right before I turned 18, I moved to a different city for the best education. To learn how to live an independent life, to make mistakes and to grow while figuring out this thing called life. Fast forward another four years and I moved to a different country beyond the seven seas for the next best in my career. By the age of 23, I achieved my little bowl of aspirations – a post-graduate degree, a professional designation, financial independence, a place of my own, a great job that I loved, a tiny entrepreneurial side-hustle and an amazing social circle of friends who turned into family. And amidst all of this, my mind is already wired to target the next on the list. When will I buy a property. The promotion. The next travel destination and it’s never-ending. Adulting hits hard and things move so fast that the real world may feel overwhelming at times.

And finally, now, I get it. Life is too short to spend worrying about the future. I’ve learned to slow down. To spend my life living and loving.

Life is a whole lot more than our goals and dreams. We can never have it all. It’s completely okay if we don’t have everything figured out, especially in our 20s. This stage of our life is supposed to be far from perfect. There’s bliss in the little things. Honestly, they are the big things. Sometimes, it’s necessary to take a break from the hustle and just enjoy the beautiful journey. Saying ‘yes’ more often than ‘no’ might lead to unknown roads but great experiences and unknown discoveries.

My life isn’t perfect, neither am I. Sometimes my life is good and sometimes it feels like a never-ending storm. When I look to the future, all I see is uncertainty. I’m still a work-in-progress, and that’s life.

As I grow there’s nothing that compares to finding and discovering new pieces of myself. Over the years, I think I’ve greatly overlooked myself. I feel like we have always been pressured into knowing who we are and what we want in life. But we change. Maybe after a few days, I’ll realize I’m no more the same person as I’m today, writing this. And it’s completely normal for us to grow and learn about our new self – something I hope to always look forward to.

Amidst all the curveballs that life throws at us, there are no spoilers for our life. Isn’t that the best part? Every bit of roadblock and achievement on this journey of life deserves to be savored, cherished, and treasured.

Cheers to loving it while living it !!