Every student must know that overcoming homesickness makes you emotionally stronger and as better opportunities of a good life mostly need you to move out, it is better to prepare mentally for it as part of your mindset says Dr. Nitesh Dhawan, Public Servant and Author
Life offers us various opportunities of different nature and in order to seize those, we are supposed to be prepared for making sacrifices. Moving out of one’s native place or home is one of the common factors at the expense of which one gets an important chance to fulfil his dreams. It is at this critical juncture, that one has to make a life changing decision to stay or leave out of that intense desire of his longing for home.
At a time, when one goes through a make-or-break situation, not many have the courage to take a bold decision to overcome their home-sickness. Many justify their weakness of nostalgia by rationalizing it with family as their first priority or sacrificing their careers at the cost of personal responsibilities. But in reality, they lack the daring approach towards living life of their dreams. One is so attached to home and family that this becomes a weakness rather than strength, a bondage rather than bonding, influencing one’s life in a big way.
Family bonding starts to develop as soon as the new born comes in to contact with parents and other family members. The sharing and caring between the family members grow and blossoms with day-to-day interactions and experiences making home a perfect place for living. It helps in nurturing of common values, family culture and a deep sense of belongingness fulfilling each other’s psycho-social needs.
Even in trying times or not so good days, one finds solace at home giving vent to his feelings through sharing with his close ones. That personal space gradually becomes the most peaceful and sacred place to live on the earth. However, this strong connection with one’s home could prove to be a hurdle in one’s journey towards higher goals. This attachment could restrain a person to move out of his comfort zone which may hamper his personal progress.
Life has no re-takes and there comes an opportunity in everybody’s life which can turnaround his life in huge way and if one misses out the chance to respond to it a positive way, there is always a feeling of repentance in the heart. However, those who are brave enough to grab it with both hands, always have success stories to share and inspire others.
One may look around successful people in different spheres and their life journey to see how they left their homes to achieve their ambitions in a way that they keep inspiring us by becoming our role models.
As Swami Vivekananda has rightly remarked- “Great things can be done by great sacrifices only.” These sacrifices could be in terms of pursuing education away from home, preparing for competitive exams at a distant place or going for job opportunities in cities far from a native place. This involves a determined mind to set aside the luxuries of one’s family life at home, the inner strength to navigate in to an unknown territory and learn the subtle complexities of life that it offers.
It is through the self-belief that one is able to take on the uncertainties and unpredictabilities of life. There is a great learning experience involved when one has to do on its own. The small and big decisions are to be taken, there is pain and suffering that one has to go through in living alone and managing one’s day-to-day affairs. This discomfort and deprivation of some sort pushes an individual to prove his existence and worth in this highly competitive world. One gets enriched with the new exposure to the vivid experiences of the world. One gets an opportunity to make new relationships and at the same time a space to think and understand oneself and various aspects of life more deeply. All this makes a person more mature emotionally and socially by increasing his adaptability to different situations giving altogether a new meaning and perspective for leading a life. A feeling of independence and self-reliance inculcates confidence and self-belief in a person.
There is a saying that ‘no pains, no gains’ which means that there is some sort of cost involved in what a person aspires to achieve. The higher is the goal, bigger will be the cost one has to pay. Leaving the luxuries of family life at home is the price one has to pay in order to accomplish something that is great.
For this to happen, the hunger, the drive to attain goal should be much stronger than the attachment with the comforts of the homely life. It is only then, that a person will strive towards making an endeavor to fulfil his dreams. If one fails to do so, there would always be regrets in the later part of the life that one hasn’t done enough to live life of his dreams. The lack of courage at the opportune time let him down and now there is no time left to do the course correction.
As Aristotle has rightly expressed, ‘choice not chance decides our destiny.’ So, ‘do what is right, not easy’!
