THE JOURNEY CALLED LIFE
Everything has a story, a history it carries along itself. The chair you sit on probably started as a tall Sisau tree deep in the Terai forests. The pillow you sleep on was a duck’s feathers years ago. You probably don’t think of the tree when you sit on the chair or of the duck while you fall asleep. But do you ever wonder what a journey each of them has experienced to be the way it is today?
You, me, the seven billion of us, every person is the way we are because of the experiences we have gone through. Only we know our voyages, only we know what we have had to face, what we have had to encounter, and what shaped us the way we are today. Every person has an explanation for the way they act, the way they love, the way they live. That is what makes each person different from the other, each drop unique in the ocean of similarity.
That guy at work who doesn’t talk much, he had a very rough childhood. His father was an army man who hated being spoken to without permission. Brought up having to suppress his emotions and thoughts, he became the shy guy he is now. His father, the army man, became the strict father because of the war. His rigidity and discipline was praised in the battlefield, but at home, he couldn’t become the usual loving father the son expected, he still carried his baggage back home and onto his son. Who do you blame? The guy? For being socially awkward because of his childhood trauma? Or the father? For bringing the baggage back home from the war he so fearlessly fought?
That girl at college who is always happy and joking, and an absolute life of the party, she suffered from acute depression and anxiety during her teenage years. That void she felt within herself couldn’t be filled even with all the love of her family and friends. So, for the sake of her loved ones, she decided to put on a happy face. She hid her torments behind a smile; the smile became her defence mechanism, and ultimately her habit. She still gets nightmares, and on those days, she appears ditzy, occupied, and temperamental. Everyone prefers to ignore it, thinking she is a drama queen and leaves her alone; who wants to get their fingers burnt anyways, right?
You see, we are brought up by a society simply concerned about the end results. The journey, the hardships, the ‘life’, it is simply not acknowledged, most of the times, even forgotten. The glasses of judgement the society has implanted on our eyes us often impairs our perception, we often fail to see things for how they actually are. We fail to acknowledge the journey, the truest part of living. For it is the journey, the hardships, the obstacles that led us to the heaven we live in today.
Every act, every decision, every thought has a reason behind it. The same way as someone else will never fully understand our circumstance, we need to realise that we too will not be able to understand their circumstance from their perspective. A mere obstacle for us might be a pie in the sky for someone else. A quirky habit of a friend might be because of a pain in the past. Instead of judging anything or anyone, we should try to understand the story behind them, their unique wonderful journeys. Maybe then will we realize that the world is an amazing place, and life is indeed, a gift.
So, today, let us take off our glasses of judgement, and try to see the reason behind everything around us. Let us try to understand why something is the way it is, and acknowledge its story. Let us embrace the journey called life.
