My Journey of Following Others' Choices

Hi everyone! After a long gap, I’m writing to share a story. Let’s see if you can relate to it.

During my childhood, I used to spend most of my time doing things that excited my soul—like riding bicycles, playing cricket with my friends, and enjoying kabaddi and badminton with my family. Those were purely awesome days before the "public examination fever" took over my heart.

When I was in 4th grade, my school introduced a class called the "Extra-Curricular Activity Period," where we could enhance our skills. The best part? We could choose the class ourselves! Honestly, if this system had been introduced for academic subjects, most of us would have skipped mathematics, right? Unfortunately, there was no such scheme for academic subjects!

One day, my class teacher gave us a form and said, “Students, you are requested to fill out this form, submit it to me by tomorrow, and pay the fees in advance.” I gave the form to my father, who, after discussing with relatives, decided to enroll me in karate.

As a young boy, I wasn’t aware of this decision and went to the carrom class instead because I loved playing carrom. It’s such an interesting game, though I wasn’t an expert in it. When the names were read out, mine wasn’t on the carrom list. That’s when I realized my father had put me in karate. With a sad face, I reluctantly went to the karate class.

After the first day, I returned home on the school bus and waited for my father, who came home at 9:45 PM. I asked him, “Appa, why did you put me in karate?” He and my uncle convinced me that karate was the best option for me. I couldn’t argue with them at that time, so I continued attending karate with the same sad face.

After completing that academic year, I moved to 5th grade. This time, I filled out the form myself before my father could decide for me. I chose chess, even though I didn’t know how to play, simply because my close friend, Uno (name changed), had also chosen it. Surprisingly, I played chess well and even won third place in an inter-school competition that year!

But the twist came in 6th and 7th grades when my father and uncle put me back into karate. Their reasoning? “Karate is good for you. Chess will make you weak in academics.” Ironically, my academic performance had peaked during the chess year.

Without any interest, I continued karate and even earned a purple belt. The funny part is that I didn’t even know the basics of white belt lessons properly. I passed all the gradings by copying others’ movements!

One day, I asked my father if I could participate in a karate tournament. My uncle responded, “In tournaments, they’ll really hurt you!” Since I was my father’s only son, he didn’t allow me to fight. I couldn’t understand why they kept pushing me into karate.

When I asked them again, they said, “You don’t know karate. How can you fight?”

Finally, I learned an important lesson: Don’t give up on your favorite things for others. If you do, they might change their opinions later, but you’ll remain stuck in a situation you never wanted.