“You think that taking Humanities in school was a mistake you made?”
My mother blabbered once we were having a conversation about my childhood best friend who had landed a job with a seven-figure package right after her graduation in Economics.
“It’s not always about the money,” I answered meekly. But that didn’t seem to make a difference to her. She went on and on about how I always made the wrong decisions and I just sat there listening because honestly I had had enough.
I was done responding to her questions.
I finally realized that those questions were never meant for me to answer, since she was doing the needful herself.
In her defence, she would always end a heated conversation with, “But I care about you” and I would fall for the trap, yet again.
But what is it with the people we call friends?
For some godforsaken reason, they hail themselves as your love-guru the minute they sense a problem. There’s no problem in that. But before giving your extremely important piece of advice, why don’t you calm down and listen to the entire story?
How is it that they forget that they were the same people who encouraged you to get into that relationship in the first place?
Whatever happened to letting one lead life on their own terms?
Is it so difficult for our beloved people to understand that we are fully-functional adults, capable of making our own decisions? We understand that you worry. But let’s face it, one only learns from their mistakes, unless you have to find the value of X. In that case, you never learn.
There are times you do things just because you want to, despite knowing the consequences. It’s called taking a risk and it takes a lot of balls to bring yourself to do that. The last thing you want to hear is for someone to tell you to reconsider.
There have been times in everybody’s life when they have made decisions which have taken a significant toll on their peace of mind.
Instead of pulling them back, why don’t we encourage them and play a part in making their already difficult lives a little simpler?
Don’t even get me started on relatives.
It seems like they have a free-pass into our lives. They consider it to be their birthright to shamelessly ask intruding questions and make us uncomfortable. While some might taunt you for your fashion choices, others would bring up your 12th grade board exam results in the oddest of conversations.
And you’d be silently standing there, smiling awkwardly because hello, manners nahin seekhe kya?
I’m not saying that one should completely stop listening to what others have to say. They might be right at times, but if they have made it a habit to poke their nose in anything and everything then it’s time you tell them to stop.
Life is too short to hold regrets and it’s even shorter for those who don’t do what their heart tells them to.