🕐 Be Born

🕑 Say first words

🕒 Take the first steps

🕓 Go to school

🕔 Do daily tasks daily

🕕 College time

🕖 Get hired

🕗 Work & work

🕘 Manage home & job

🕙 Get engaged

🕚 Get married

🕛 Manage home & job

🕜 Give birth(s)

🕝 Woman? Probably leave your job to take care of family

🕞 Choose the best school for your kids

🕟 Ensure your children go to the college of “your” choice

🕠 Ensure they get a job suiting the family “standards”

🕡 Ensure they marry the bride/groom per your preferences 

🕢 Ensure they give you your grandchildren as per the timeline that suits you

🕣 Get retired

🕤 Repeat the process for your grandchildren

🕥 Entire life worry about “how is your rank in society”

🕦 Realising that comparing yourself with others & following a checklist wasn’t worth it

🕧 Die

Of course, a rudimentary list – but somehow, the lives of most of us revolve around it. 

What if

• Instead of a fancy school, I get my kid admitted to a mediocre one
• I decide not to tie the knot unless I find the right person (no matter how long it takes or leaves me “single” for life)
• I am tagged a little “different” or “weird” by the so-called society but still decide to go my way
• My partner and I decide to adopt a child (or maybe a pet) instead of “reproducing” one
• I am a doctor’s son but want to become a dancer or an engineer’s daughter but want to go for content writing
• I did a course on management, started the job as a consultant, but now I feel I’ll be better placed as an interior designer

I know more than a blog; it seems a bulleted ‘poster,’ but these are some things worth thinking about. Are we ready to “out of the league’’ once in a while? Or we just need to follow a list irrespective of what makes us happy and what gives us pain. Nothing more here; with this write-up, I intend for us to shake up some long-ideated notions and form some new perceptions. Flexibility is the key – it could help restore our happiness!

Life is meant to be lived, not ticked ☑

Avani Raj Arora