Different worlds

I knew this girl once who seemed to be from a different world. She was so poised, so sophisticated and to a small town boy - the epitome of all the things the wide world out there had to promise once you got out of the small town - and got a life. So I tried, and I tried. Finally broke out of the small town and blended in with the sophists - and found myself wondering seriously about what really I had set out to achieve. Was it the lifestyle of the succesful? Was it success itself? A trip alone to the beaches of goa, hours of travel on country roads, a new friend, and two afternoons of doing nothing but drink beer and smoke cigarettes brought me to a decision that I needed to change careers and live the life that I'd always dreamed of. And I did. And for some time it did make me happy.

Or I thought at that time that it made me happy. I thought that the vague unease was just that one more thing that I needed to make my life just perfect. And once I got that, I told myself that I was unhappy about the traffic. About the lack of private time. About being so far away from M. I was right, but it wasn't just that.

Now my life is pretty full. And now I know what I really want. To be free. And I am ready to sacrifice a few years if it'll set me really free. No extravagant dreams. No Gulfstream jet. Just enough time to do things I want. And to be with M.

Innovation requires you to sacrifice temporary gains. And in third world countries, it takes all your strength to just keep up with the bare minimum you need. You can't make any sacrifices. You can't afford to. For a first world citizen, my life is ordinary. And I am happy with the sacrifices necessary to move ahead with my life plan. But it took a different world to make me realize what I really valued - freedom.

ubergeek, the