Achieving Identity

Jessica was any other city girl. She was born and raised in Bangalore. She had pursued a degree in Geography and had learned English and Hindi in school, but managed to learn Spanish and French by going to language classes and by taking online lessons. She wanted to do something different in life, instead of the usual corporate rat race or any other common jobs. She wanted to travel to new places and write travel guide books and novels about her journey not only that, she wanted to publish those in different languages. But she was scared to tell her parents about her dreams, the dreams that may not give her the most comfortable life but would at least make her content, gratified and happy in life, something that would at least give her peace of mind. It had already been three weeks after her graduation and she had been waiting for the emails from the various universities that she had applied to for a postgraduate degree. She would be overjoyed if she would get into any university, but secretly wished she would not get into any other university except for the cyber universities. Her father came into her room while she was anxiously biting her nails, patted on her head and said, ”Don’t be so tensed. You worked very hard. Sab theek hoga.” She looked at her father suddenly and asked, ”Papa, will you let me do what I want to do? I mean…. will you let me follow my dreams… as in my job?” Her father sat down on the chair next to the wall and said, ”It is your life, and nobody has a bigger right than you to take the decisions regarding your dreams.” She just smiled at him, not having the courage to tell him about her dreams and goals in life. Her father however got the feeling that his daughter was holding back something from him. Before he could question her, she suddenly exclaimed, ”The mails are coming in!” Her father asked, ”Oh! Which ones did you get in?” I got into National University of Arts and Sciences, and International Cyber University of Melbourne too, I think I am going to choose that!” Her father said, ”Didn’t you get into any other college?” Jessica looked down and left out a heavy sigh before saying, ”Papa, I’ve been wanting to tell you this for a long time, but I never got the courage to do so, I want to do my post-graduation degree from a cyber-university, so that meanwhile I can travel to different places, as I want to be a travel writer. I do not want to do regular corporate or any other 9 to 5 job, that won’t make me happy. I’m sorry I did not tell you this before. I’ve been wanting to do this… this job since a long time, I want to publish my books in different languages, I want to write travel guides and make travel blogs.” Her father looked at her and said, ”You need to first plan out trips for that and also need to try to research on the daily lives of the people of the place you visit. You need to not only visit the tourist destinations, but also try to see beyond that to come up with new concepts and ideas for your books, you also need to establish a collaboration with publishing agencies. You should have started that during the winter break. More than anything you need to take loans for your travel and also need to find online jobs, so you can pay back the loans. There’s so much to do, and you were just sitting all this while!”

Jessica looked at her father, all confused and asked, “Does that mean you do not have any problem with my career choice? I mean am I allowed to do it?”

Her father looked at her surprised and confused face, smiled and said, ”Ever since you were a young girl, I always wanted you to follow your dreams, I want you to have a career, not only so that you can support yourself, but also because, I want you to live your dreams, you are a strong person, have the capabilities to achieve your dreams, and even if you lack in some cases, you can always work hard to reach every level.”

She smiled, holding back her tears of happiness. The joy and satisfaction she felt was beyond words that could describe it. She told her father that she was going to mail a few publishing agencies and try to establish contact with them. Her father suggested she also start looking for online jobs and research on basic travel destinations for the beginning.

Jessica started out with her university after two weeks studying from home. She had gotten two online jobs, one for translating and one for online tutoring; her parents were giving her financial support as well. She had started talking to a few publishing agencies and things had been going great.

She was planning with travels in her own country, India as that would be a smooth start. She decided to visit the north eastern states and travel there for a month to get detailed information and discover more about the destinations beyond the capitals and big cities. She asked her father, ”I think I am going to travel to the north east for the starters, I will book the train tickets. But I think I might need some money.”

Her father asked her, ”Don’t worry, I will help you, lets book the tickets for now, what did the publishing agency say?” She replied, “The third agency that mailed me back has agreed for the ideas, they just need the draft, and then they will see if they can publish it or not. So it is still pretty risky. I’m worried if it doesn’t work out.” She sighed and sat on the tool near. Her father patted her head and said, “if it doesn’t, there is always a next time, you need to keep working until you achieve your dream.”

Jessica was moved by her father’s words and decided at that moment that she would do her best. It was a turning point for her and inspired her to help herself by herself and have full faith in in herself.

Surprised that this story ends just here without any information of what happens afterwards? It was meant to abruptly end to be very honest. But hopefully, your dreams don’t need to end like this story, abruptly ended. This was Jessica’s story of her startup and how she stuck with her goals till the very end, and hopefully if she does that in the future as well, that will lead her to success, defined by her. She embarked on a journey of finding out who she is and what she is. Her capabilities, strong desires and perseverance defined her, not her weight or visuals. Her parents, touchwood, were supportive of her dreams and goals and I hope this case is for every dreamer out there.

No person is defined through the challenges he or she faces, but rather how he or she tackles it.