My Journey of 21 years

Born in Delhi to a Punjabi Brahmin family, I was lucky to get a first-hand experience of living with extended relatives and cousins.

However, we soon shifted to Ahemdabad, Gujarat, where most of my childhood was influenced by a different culture. Like it is said that children pick up habits quickly, I imbibed the Gujarati traits which is why till date no one can believe that I am actually a Punjabi.

I don’t have a Punjabi accent, neither do I stand by the stereotypes of being a Punjabi. I don’t think it will come off as something strange if I confess that I cannot even speak in Punjabi.

Talking of stereotypes of coming from a Punjabi background, I do not eat non-vegetarian food, neither do I consume alcohol nor am I tall-built and broad. 

Does any other stereotype come across your mind right now? Feel free to ask me that too and I am sure I’ll refuse it too.

Gujarat was one such place where in true sense, my personality was developed. The school I went to played a significant role in shaping my values and nurturing my mindset. 

Be it academics, extra-curricular activities, life outside of the four walls of a school building, I believe that had it not been for strict discipline and a systematic approach, I wouldn’t have been an all-rounder.

Today I can very proudly say that I was an excellent student, a graceful dancer, and a fierce basketball player. 

Moving from early days to my teenage phase, I easily got settled in the Mumbai atmosphere. In my growing years, I have gone from drifting away from studies only to fall for the urge to mingle with my peers and back to realizing what my aim should be.

However, all this took a lot of time, and during this I somewhere didn’t notice what my interests, likes and dislikes were. I took to writing during  the school days, and it soon became a hobby. Like any other teenage kid, I would always go on and off with it. This resulted in a cloud of uncertainty when the time came to choose a career line. At least I was sure of one thing – I wanted to take up commerce. 

Two years of high-school was just about learning and passing examinations, and during these two years also I didn’t really get myself to clear that cloud of uncertainty. 
It was time to choose a stream and a degree course. I did have an inclination towards psychology but couldn’t get myself to actually pursue it. 

Without getting into the nitty-gritties of why, let’s move on to saying that I chose Bachelor’s of Commerce so as to make a career as a Chartered Accountant. A graduation degree is of three years and imagine my pursuit of chasing something that I believed to be my passion; while in reality, I was just going with the flow without putting much thought to what was happening.

It took me two years to step out and accept that this was something I didn’t want to do. It was this day, and I was determined to find my path and explore myself to do something where my heart and mind lie.

After months of deliberation and analysis, I narrowed down things that I was good and bad at. I got a sense of what I don’t want to do if not of the things that I want to do.

I made writing my ongoing go-to place, and started indulging in it on a regular basis. This helped me to decide that I want to do this at a professional level and started researching about careers and fields in writing. 

There is a plethora of streams in just writing itself – content writing, copywriting, academic writing, technical and non-technical writing and so much more. To get introduced to an ocean of something that you thought to be a pond is so wonderful. I studied more and started exploring the niches I was comfortable in writing.

During this exploration,the platform of  LinkedIn has been like a distance-learning university. I got an exposure to this industry and a great amount of knowledge about how the world of freelance works. 

Through this, I got my first content writing internship where I am learning different niches and strategies to write something that my readers will find worthy enough to spend time on. 

Like I had mentioned earlier about having an inclination towards psychology, I even got an opportunity  to get myself enrolled in a summer internship for the same. 

Observing an industry from the outside while actually getting a first-hand experience is like two extremes. 

I always thought content writing is just plain vanilla writing but it also includes deciding what is best for the audience, strategizing my article topics and knowing how will content marketing play a role amidst all this.

Similarly, I always thought that psychology is just reading peoples’ behavior and studying their stimulus to a particular situation. However, it is also about being empathetic yet not too supportive. It includes being accepting of a number of things that one may not believe in  and being mentally and emotionally strong enough so as to keep the logical cap on.

All in all, I am grateful that at least now I am on the right road where I can see my abilities and have the desire and determination to pursue subjects that interest me.

Better late than never, I am still left with exploring a lot of things about myself and I am sure that if I have started this now, I won’t stop.