The Lone Wolf v/s The Wolf Pack

                                                                      

Embrace your decisions and enjoy them 

2017 May. Cleared the Class 10 Board Examinations with A+ in all subjects. For every Indian student, clearing the class 10 board exams is the culmination of the years-old question constantly thrown at us," What do you want to do in Class 11 and 12?", " Take Science or Commerce". But I gave my parents, teachers and in fact every single person who knew me( though I didn't know all of them) the biggest shock of their lives, when I said, " I want Humanities with Maths"!!!! 

What????? Humanities? with Maths? Are you kidding me? Where do you think Humanities is offered with Maths? Humanities is for those low-mark students, not for someone like you who has scored A+, you shouldn't take Humanities if you want to succeed in life.....

Ah!!!! The same old ruckus. Everyone would have an opinion about my life and won't let me have my way!

But it is not something that is new to most of you reading this. I am sure at some point in your life, you too would have taken tough decisions which would have sent shockwaves across your social circles, bombarded with opinions to change the decision and what not. 

When it's one or two people with opinions, it's manageable to a certain extent. But when it's a whole bunch of people, people round the corner, even those whom you might not have seen in your entire life, with opinions, you tend to doubt your decision. Even I did. At one point, I was thinking of how to convince myself that I took the right decision about my choice for higher studies.

But fret not. There is a way to find out whether you have taken the right decision. Ask yourself, " Am I up for this?", "Will I enjoy my time doing this?". 

The whole key to the process is to determine how much satisfaction You get from your choices. Jeremy Bentham, a famous philosopher and proponent of utilitarianism, once said that every action's worth is determined by the amount of satisfaction it provides to the maximum people. 

On a more individual scale, it could be changed into: The worth of every action of yours is determined by the amount of satisfaction you get, and if possible but not necessary, to the others.

I always prefer going out to the movies alone and enjoying by myself, without company. Everyone keeps asking me, Why are you like this? 

Why am I like this? It's bcoz I enjoy being like this. Your actions should be a source of enjoyment primarily to you, not to others. 

Now I am studying in IIT Madras. Their cultural fest, Saarang is the largest student-run cultural fest in India. They hosted numerous shows from professionals around the world. But being from a middle-class Indian family, I wasn't exposed to Western Music early and am almost distasteful of it now( Not that it is bad, but I don't like it for some reason).

Everyone pays Rs.2000 in the semester fee which has to be exclusively utilized for Saarang. My friends spent the money buying combo tickets for all the shows combined. They spent their money on the first days of the sale, but even on the last day of the sale, I had my Rs.2000 with me. 

My friends kept pestering me to spend the money on the combo ticket, but I waited. They ridiculed me, but I didn't care.

Finally, there was an offer for front row seats to the concert of Shankar Mahadevan for Rs.2000. Since I have heard and liked his songs, I spent the entire money on ONE ticket and had a blast!!

Year after year, when I have to make decisions like these, I realized that everyone would have an opinion in your life, but you should take the final call, after considering them. Bcoz, in the end, it's you who has to live your life.

Forget the old saying, Lone Wolf dies and the pack survives. Atleast the Lone Wolf would die satisfied than live in the pack as an unsatisfied member.