All of us have dreams hidden deep down in our hearts somewhere. And in all the busyness and compulsions of life, many of us either never realize how badly we want them or never get an opportunity to take a step towards achieving them. I was fortunate that I got the chance to do what my heart had been aching to do.

Thanks to my parents, since childhood, I have gotten everything one needs to grow personally and professionally. From getting into the top colleges of the country to working for the best of the banks in the world, I had it all. Then why was I not completely satisfied with my respectable lifestyle. After a lot of introspection, I realized that the answer lies in the same sense of security that I found myself surrounded with since I was a kid.

In India, we as kids and teenagers often don’t face any challenges where we have to fend for ourselves as we live in a bubble; a bubble protected by our family. We live our lives, do regular stuff, but the lack of challenge slowly molds us into people who are not major risk-takers as we never have had to fight our own battles. There was always someone to fight them for us. And by the time we are ready to fend for ourselves, our brain is streamlined to think linearly, in a guarded manner as we have been doing all along.

As we hardly ever made our own decisions, faced our own fears, dealt with our own failures, we never got to know ourselves; our strengths and weaknesses. Every comfort that we get too early and easily in life simultaneously takes away our capability to face some hardship; whether the comfort be physical or emotional. By virtue of living in such a protected environment, many of us never face situations where one has to sail close to the wind or skate on thin ice.

After going through this transformational journey, I feel a lot has changed in me. If I am to pick one, it would be this: It is just fine to opt for a different path when faced with similar life situations as faced by your friends, partner, cousins, relatives or the super successful guy/girl next door. Very few people might support you when you need them to. I was lucky to find my family standing with me in all my decisions. It is all right if people around you do not understand your choices sometimes. It’s your life and you know what your dreams are and where you aspirations lie!

A lot of people have inspired me (and still continue to inspire me) during the course of this year either in person or through their blogs. It gives me immense courage to know that there are people just like me who have taken their life in their own hands and are living it on their own terms.

This write-up is as much about my own journey as it is about my heartfelt effort to reach out to people just like me who are still thinking whether to go for their dreams or not. It’s our life, our choices, any sacrifices that need to be made along the way would be our too; but so would be the rewards and experiences that we gather along the journey.

 As someone has rightly said:

“The cost of not following your heart, is spending the rest of your life wishing you had.”

I hope each one of you, at some point in your life, is able to live your life the way you want to and not the way you have to! I am thankful that I could do what I wanted to and promise myself to never let go of my dreams and aspirations. Our dreams are only so far away as taking a step towards them!!