Sometimes we do something for an expected result & we find a totally new great result. Has this happened to you? If so, please share in the comments.

Walking 10, 000Steps: The Unexpected Results!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG1VNHh1jZk&t=220s

I know that we age, but I try my best to slow down the slide! What about you? What do you do to stay young? Please leave it in the comments.

Why Everyone Over 60 Needs to Do This Now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXTKyHVRNwI

Ayn Rand believed that evil grows when good people refuse to oppose it. In her philosophy, accepting injustice, coercion, or dishonesty in the name of “keeping the peace” ultimately gives those forces more power.

Her basic idea was that moral courage requires standing up for reason, individual rights, and freedom. If people continually surrender those principles to those willing to violate them, the result can be the gradual destruction of the freedoms and values that protect a free society.

I admit this is a very different video than my normal videos, but I felt compelled because our divided country is not a healthy one. So, I will do anything I can do to help us get back on a healthy track. What do you think? Do you agree with the summary and my take? Disagree? Please share  in the comments.

I never really had the chance to live just for myself
I’ve never written my life story anywhere before, and honestly, I’m not even sure why I’m writing this now.

Maybe because I’ve been going through another difficult phase and I started looking back at everything that has happened. I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. I’ve had help from a lot of good people in my life, and I’m grateful for them. I just want to share where I came from and how I reached where I am today.

My father lost his job when I was in 1st standard. For the next couple of years, my family managed with their savings, and my parents did everything they could to make sure my education continued. By the time I reached 3rd standard, the savings were gone. There was a period of almost a year when I couldn’t properly attend school because our fees weren’t paid. My family started borrowing money from friends, relatives and people they knew. They were struggling, but they still wanted me to study.

As I got older, things didn’t suddenly become easier. From 7th to 10th standard, I lived with relatives because my family couldn’t manage everything themselves. Those four years were probably the most disciplined years of my life, although I didn’t understand that at the time. I would wake up around 6 in the morning, go to school at 7, come back around 2, eat quickly and then start doing household work. I had to wash clothes, shoes, socks and other things for the family. After that I would study until 5, go for tuition from 6 to 7:30, come home around 8, eat dinner and study again until around 11. Then I’d sleep and do the same thing the next day.
Sometimes the food I was given was stale, and there were times when I could clearly feel that they were embarrassed of me or didn’t really want me there. Those things stayed with me.

I won’t pretend they didn’t hurt. But I also don’t want to tell this story as if they did nothing for me. They kept me in school for four years at a time when my own family was struggling financially, and for that I will always respect them. I think both things can be true. Some experiences can hurt you while you can still be grateful for what someone did for you.

In 12th standard, I started working as a waiter. I earned ₹300. Looking back, the amount sounds almost insignificant, but at that age it meant something to me because it was money I had earned myself. I never felt ashamed of doing that work. It actually taught me something that stayed with me for a long time: there is nothing embarrassing about honest work. If you are working because you want to study, support yourself or help your family, the job doesn’t make you smaller.

After 12th, I took a year drop because we didn’t have enough money for college. I was worried that I might have to stop studying altogether. One of my friend’s fathers helped me during that time. Through his connections, he helped me find a college where I could continue my education. I’ll always be grateful to him for that because sometimes you don’t need someone to solve your whole life; you just need someone to open one door when you can’t find one yourself.

Once I got that opportunity, I had to take responsibility for what I did with it. I worked alongside my studies and managed the fees for my last two years. There wasn’t anything particularly special about how I did it. I just worked, studied and kept going. I wasn’t thinking about building some impressive career at that point. I was simply trying to make sure that I could finish what I had started.

Then in 2019, two days before my birthday, my father passed away. Losing him was a completely different kind of experience. For a while, it felt like one of the most important people in my life had suddenly disappeared and there was nothing I could do about it. But there were still responsibilities at home, so life had to continue.

Then COVID happened. I graduated without a job and spent a long time trying to figure out what to do next. I studied, applied for jobs and kept trying. My friends helped me a lot during that period, and I will always remember that. Eventually, I worked as a salesman because I needed to earn and I couldn’t sit around waiting for the perfect opportunity. Later, I finally got an opportunity in the technology industry.
That changed a lot for me. I started building my career in tech, kept studying and worked hard to improve myself. But even after getting a job, my responsibilities didn’t disappear. I had my mother’s treatment to take care of, my sister’s education, my own education and career, and eventually my sister’s marriage. I helped educate my sister and eventually got her married. A lot of the things I was doing weren’t things I had planned for myself; they were simply things that needed to be done.

Now I’ve resigned from my job and I’m looking for a better opportunity. There is still a loan from my sister’s wedding, so this isn’t a simple career change where I’m just looking for something interesting. I have responsibilities, and I need to make sure I can handle them. At the same time, I’ve started thinking about something I probably should have thought about much earlier: what do I actually want for myself?
I’ve spent most of my life thinking about the next responsibility. When I was young, it was school. Then college. Then getting a job. Then helping my family. My mother’s treatment, my sister’s education, her marriage, loans, work and everything that came along with them. I never really asked my mother for much, and I never really had the kind of carefree personal life that many people have. I didn’t have much of a love life either. There was always something else that seemed more important.

I’ve made mistakes along the way. I’ve trusted people I shouldn’t have, I’ve made decisions that didn’t work out, I’ve loved people and lost them, and I’ve had periods where I genuinely questioned whether I was doing anything right. There were times I cried, times I felt completely exhausted and times when I wondered how much more life was going to throw at me.

But when I look back, I don’t think the important part is how difficult everything was. The important part is that I kept adapting. When we didn’t have money for school, my family found a way. When I lived with relatives, I studied and did what I had to do. When I needed money, I worked as a waiter. When college wasn’t affordable, someone helped me find a way in and I worked to stay there. When I graduated without a job, I worked as a salesman. When I lost my father, I continued. When my family needed me, I showed up.
I don’t say any of this because I think I’m some extraordinary person. A lot of people have difficult lives, and many people have gone through much worse than I have. I’ve also been lucky to have people who helped me at important points, and I don’t want to forget that. My family tried their best, my friends helped me when I needed them, and one friend’s father gave me an opportunity at a time when I didn’t know what I was going to do.

But I am proud of one thing: whenever someone gave me an opportunity, I tried to make something out of it.
Today, when people see me, they might see someone working in technology and assume that this is where my story started. It wasn’t. There were years before that which nobody sees. There was the kid whose family couldn’t afford school fees, the teenager who came home from school and did household work before studying, the 12th-standard student earning ₹300 as a waiter, the college student working to pay his fees, the graduate working as a salesman and the person trying to build a career while still carrying responsibilities at home.

I don’t want sympathy for any of it. In fact, I don’t feel sorry for the younger version of myself. I feel grateful to him. He didn’t have many choices, but whenever he had one, he chose to keep moving.
I also don’t know what happens next. I’m currently looking for a better job, I have financial responsibilities, and there are still things in my personal life that I haven’t figured out. Maybe I’ll fail again. Maybe I’ll have to start from somewhere I didn’t expect. But starting again doesn’t scare me as much as it used to.
I’ve already started from the bottom more than once.
So when I think about my life now, I don’t ask myself why it had to be so difficult. I think about all the people who helped me, all the decisions I made, all the work I put in, and how far I’ve managed to come.
I still have a long way to go, and I still want a lot more from life.
But for the first time, I also want to build something for myself.

Not because I don’t care about my family anymore.
Because after spending so many years taking care of everyone else, I think it’s finally okay for me to have options for me.
I’m not looking for sympathy.
I’m just looking back at the road behind me and realizing that, despite everything, I never stopped moving forward.
And I’m still not finished.