If you don’t know where you’re going, any road would lead you there. – Lewis Carroll

Ironically, I just heard it from a girl in a movie where she devotes her everything to her ambition of becoming an Olympic long distance runner.

Yet instead of laughing at it, I felt like I was hit by a truck. Surrounded by hundreds of people, giving hundreds of one-liners on love, friendship, existential crisis, hurt, and what not, this was the first one that described the possibility of a life without an ambition.

I am not that special kid, who is in college with a specific aim to absorb all the knowledge necessary for achieving a life-long dream. My dreams change after every night. And if I count all those times when I drift off into nothingness during the day, I’ll give a conservative estimate of every few hours. Honestly, it scares the living daylights out of me! Woe to my old self, who believed choosing between medical and engineering streams, was the only decision I had to make to fall into a career path.

Cue three years into college, and I now stand at the distinct moment, where there is no buffer zone between me and some hard choices. Pretty soon, I will have to decide for sure whether I want to study further or get into a job. If I study further, where should I do it? What courses do I think best suit me? Am I frustrated enough with my stream to switch over into something else? And if I decide to work, what kind of work profile do I want to get into? Although in answer to that question, I’ll jump up in celebration to whichever company hires me.

So after all this studying, I still cannot categorically say, that I have something I want to do, and I’ll do it whatever way possible. The three years of college until now, haven’t cleared up anything up for me. I will, just like after class 12 exams, look at my options, and go with the one that pops out the most to me.

By this point, I am sure most of you are squirming while reading this, because of how close this hits home. It is also, most definitely, just plain depressing how hilariously clueless we are.

But recently I have started believing, it may not be as sad as we make it out to be. Remember the Lewis Carroll quote I typed at the beginning of this article? What if it is meant to say – Our ambition-less selves makes us special? Would you believe me?

You should.

All through the growing years, we have performed well at whatever we applied our efforts in. Maybe it’s because we are reasonably good at everything we try, that we feel stranded. I say, do heck with it! If we’ve come this far, we can sure go a long way further. Our indecision gives us the chance to try out everything under the sky. Even if it is something random, we are at least developing memories. And as clichéd as it sounds, we are gaining worthwhile experiences.

By over thinking, we’re really getting no output, other than over worked brains and a perennial frowning resting face.

An article on Philosiblog gives a wonderful take on it –

“…most of life’s difficulties come down to preparation. Too little or too much, or just sitting there with “analysis paralysis” the result is the same. You don’t get what you want, you don’t go where you had hoped to end up…”

We have managed to mould ourselves to whatever situation we have landed up in. We have jumped across countless hurdles to reach where we are. And we will continue to do so in the future. Our lack of any specific dream, gives us the freedom to love whatever we find.

All we really need is a mind that is open to all possibilities and the courage to jump when the time comes for a leap of faith.

P.S While writing this article, I had the fortune of stumbling upon the blog- Philosiblog. The blog has some beautiful articles based on popular quotes. Go check it out here – http://www.philosiblog.com/  .