Trading it off.
It’s a tradeoff, isn’t it? Home and ambition. You can choose to stay at home, with the food and the family and a simple life. Or you can choose to try it big, stay away from home and miss it loads. It’s a tradeoff really, at least when you come from a small town like mine. I wish sometimes that I had done my undergrad in India, like most of my friends. But I know now that there’d be so many opportunities I’d never even know about. Plus the independence.
It seems like ambition is closely correlated to our environment. It’s a ‘what everyone else is aiming for’ kind of thing. Crowd mentality, herd following, even peer pressure. When everyone around you is aiming so big, it kind of seems natural for you to think along those lines too. And then when you meet those who claim to be okay with whatever happens, it sort of feels funny. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not judging. But I didn’t think that ambition levels would be so low in this part of the world.
In fact, a lot of my friends are choosing home and proximity to home over ambition. It’s a good thing I guess. I’d do it too, but I won’t. The opportunity cost is too high. The what-ifs are too many. The mind is too restless. It’s a tradeoff. Home and ambition. I know it now. And it looks like I’ve already made my choice.
Welcome to my blog, The Shooting Star. I’ve been called a storyteller, writer, photographer, digital nomad, “sustainability influencer,” social entrepreneur, solo traveller, vegan, sustainable tourism consultant and environmentalist. But in my heart, I’m just a girl who believes that travel – if done right – has the power to change us and the world we live in.
I know what you mean. Sometimes I think about why we left, and what I’d have gained and lost if I’d finished school with y’all, and if I’d gone to college in India. It can be so isolating too, yknow, regardless of how ‘Indian’ your environment may be, you never really have the same experience. But I guess we’ll never know! One thing is for sure, as you say, that we’d never have the same opportunities, and it really does feel like your drive, your ambition, simply grows the more you have freedom and opportunity. I’ve always gone farther and farther from home, and I’ve often missed it, but mostly I’ve realized I’ve gained lessons I’d never have gained by staying on the well-worn path.
Reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem. What standard was it that we went over that in so much detail? 🙂
Probably the 5th. im not sure though! Yeah, you left much much earlier. Please tell me time heals that wound, no? Are you in HK yet by the way?
at some point in time we all face this dilemma…I too had a situation..but whenever I look back I keep telling muself “the grass is greener the other side”…loved this blog…keep it up