"Celebrate Freedom" Contest - August 2009

Originally Posted by Sheebavinod

Life seemed never to take a turn from the boring, monotonous routine during my school days. The hours in school, home, tuitions, studies …..same cycle everytime….
I was an ordinary student, hard working and dedicated towards my studies, but never keen about the extra curricular activities at school. There was a reason behind it-I suffered from inferiority complex.In the line between fat and thin, I began leaning towards the former. In dire situation were a pawn was needed to be poked fun at, I found myself becoming a highly potential target. It did have an adverse affect on me. I never used to participate in any event though I had the talent and potential in me. There were a couple of teachers who encouraged me, because they knew the hidden talent in me.They tried many times encouraging me but it did not work, or rather it never worked.

One day , my teacher , without my knowledge or consent registered my name in a debate competition at school. Later when she informed me about it, I felt butterflies in my stomach and was very tensed and I knew I had no way out of it. So , I decided that I would give it a try . I prepared well and was ready to debate . But when the time came, I failed miserably. As I stood before the mass audience in front of the microphone, my confidence drained away and all I could do was mutter something and walk away. I failed to rise to the situation. After ten minutes or so, my teacher came to me and said that the committee was ready to give me a chance again but I refused . Thus this mortifying incident did nothing but bring misery to me. Humiliation enveloped my entire being and I felt deep remorse in front of my loving teachers who always tried to help me.Then and there , I decided enough was enough. I needed to prove that I was not what I projected myself to be. I worked hard to change it, read lot of motivational articles, spent lot of time talking to myself in front of the mirror and lot of other things which if I describe here, will make this article to long to read. I participated in an extempore competition after couple of months and bagged second prize. My joy knew no bounds. My inferiority complex that held me in chains broke into pieces, the new found freedom of self esteem brought me happiness and confidence. Slowly things started getting better, I became the leader of my team in many competitions, participated in lot of events and became the overall winners in that academic year.

The freedom to choose hope over despair, confidence over doubts, happiness over melancholy helped me in improvising myself from that day onwards tremendously.
Success is a matter of choice and not of chance, so I chose to be free from all unwanted chaos in my mind and heart. The learning still continues till date.

Hi Sheeba...
Very inspiring write up dear...

Hello Jyotimehndi - Nicely written. Can certainly feel how it must be behind the wheels. I am still waiting for that day to come !!

Hello Sheeba - Your confidence certainly shows in the write up. Well done !
Choosing confidence over doubts - thats pretty well said too.

Hello Chilbuli Imli - Well said ! I could see a lot of me in you. Although what you have managed to achieve is really great. Kuch khatta aur kuch mitha hona is a winning combination !!!


Ani and Preetha - Thx for your feedback too...

hi

Jyotimehndi nice article, for sure im also waiting for a day i can be free of the fear of being on the driver seat and going zoooooooom.

knot2share good dear , after 12th i too felt the same way , if i join a college far from my home i would be free to have a single room all for myself , but god is great , he didnt let me suffer and i realised later how difficult a hostel life is.

sheeba good thinking and a nice write up....... no words to express

chilbuli well done

Hi sheeba

Beautifully written. It takes us back to our years in school, when all us went thru that phase for something or the other. And you have put it on paper so well.

cheers

Jyoti

Hi Imli Katti Mithi

Lovely writeup . Oh what a feeling it is , your first job. Coming home and hugging ma with your first salary. It is such proud moment. No matter how much you earn later in your life , it can never match the first paycheck.

cheers

jyoti

At each time of life I wanted to have freedom from different things:
When I was a small child I always looks at churidar clad didis and thought wow!!I just want to grow up so fast and then be like them.So that I will have my freedom, the freedom of making decisions by myself...freedom to play as long as I need, freedom to watch T.V till my eyes get watery,freedom to study only when I felt to..so that whenever my parents scold me for not studying I can say them.....
"Am an adult, I have the freedom to decide on how to spend my time"

And as I prayed, time flew up really fast, even before I knew it I had grown up and become an adult as I always dreamt of...I stayed in hostel for my graduation.So I had all those freedoms which I dreamt of when I was a kid.I need to study only when I felt to or only in the
eve of university exams.I had the freedom to visit my friends whenever I liked, I had the freedom to do whatever I like.But then I remembered sadly, when I got the freedom for doing these things I had to surrender my freedom for doing other things that only a kid can do or those things which are passed off with a laugh when a kid did.Like the freedom of speech,yeah i believe with age our freedom of expression or speech also gets limited.We dont talk our mind out always though we want to.Sometimes we have to hold back our words even when we want to say something.But as a kid no one expected you to be wise enough to hold back your words thinking what effect those words will have on the receiver.

Then I started craving for another freedom , financial freedom.I wanted to work after my graduation and be financially independent.So I worked hard for that and with god's grace ended up in a reputed IT firm.Now I have most of the freedom I dreamt of as a child Freedom to take decisions, freedom to spend my free time as I love to , freedom in terms of finance....but there is one thing which I can never escape from and I dont want to be free from.It is nothing but my family, I want to be emotionally tied to my family and my dear ones so that whatever freedom I have I wont end up misusing it.And as I look back I understand it was good I didnt have that "freedom" which I yearned for when I was a child, because at that age with that much freedom I might not have ended up here as what I am.The greatest blessing I have is that I know how not to misuse my freedom.
And now am celebrating my freedom to its fullest.

“Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires” - Bertrand Russell quotes

Preeta, Shree, thanks a lot for your feedback dears.

Jyoti, rightly said, i guess everyone goes through that phase back in school, some emerge from it, some drown in it. Loved your article, the freedom you must have felt when you drove for the first time must have boosted your confidence to a great extent right.

Jils , happy to know that you liked my article.

i am a B.com graduate with typing shorthand qualification and started working in companies from the age of 20years . but from the begining i wanted to do something different but could not do anything other than working as steno typist and later on persoanl secretary to M.D in big companies. but in the corner of my mind always something used to itch me that this is not my line. later after my marriage,i quit my job to look after my daughter and there was big gap and became fully immersed in household chores and was liketypical home maker still in the corner of my mind i used to feel that i should do something different. as my daughter grew, i engaged mysef in spiitual things,learnt reiki and started healing inside family ...but even then ,my mind was not satiesfied. i broadened my healing ability to acupressure and acupuncture and started healing people with good feedback. . when i get feedback i really feel a BIG SENSE OF FREEDOM. i feel i am not wasting my time and at the same time, i am not bound to 9 to 5 job. NOW I AM FULLY SATISFIED .

bars62

Oh wow Bars62!!..........That is quite a variety of experience u have. Alternative therapy as it is called these days I think. And yes, when people come back to you with positive feedback, it certainly helps to go a long way. Keep up the good work and hope you flourish in your service more and more..

Jils - Thx dear for the comment. But let me tell you, it is not really that bad to be in a hostel. Quite an adventurous one to experience.

Ami - nicely written dear ! Your experiences at different stages of your life...After many years when we look back at such incidents, some of them seem so insignificant now. I guess what elders say is right that everything happens for a reason !