After all those years of exams after exams and degrees after degrees, at the ripe old age of thirty- I felt as if I had finally become an adult. At first, it was difficult not having the prospect of a terrorizing HOD or an upcoming presentation to be anxious about.
I was at last, truly free to be who I wanted to be.
But the problem was- I didn’t know who that was.
I had all the time in the world to work on what I felt deeply about.
But a decade of operating in a mode of chronic stress had undone whatever self-understanding I might have had before.

I was determined to find out what could take me to that elusive peak of Maslow’s pyramid. Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist proposed a five-tier model of human needs,often depicted as levels within a pyramid. These include- basic physiological needs (like food and water), safety and security, love and belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization (which is at the peak). This level refers to the realization of one’s full potential – by being the most authentic version of oneself. I knew this was what I was looking for.

A month back, as I was reading Joseph Nguyen’s ‘Dont believe everything you think’, this particular question intrigued me,

‘If I had infinite money, already travelled the world, had no fear, and didn’t receive any recognition for what I do, what would I do or what would I create?’

It didn’t take me lot of time to think of what I would do – WRITE. I have always been this bookworm who loves writing- be it poetry, an article or just an entry of self-reflection in my journal. If I had no obligation to do my day job and got no recognition for what I wrote, I would still want to write. For me. 

For years,I had held back because I didn’t want to put out anything less than perfect into the world. I was afraid of being vulnerable, exposed to judgement. But now I was beginning to think differently.
Maybe I could keep writing, even if it wasn’t perfect.
Maybe I could keep writing, because it lets me be me.

What would you do ?