A NEW LIFE

Out of junior college, and I was bored of Science. I did not think much of transistors.
I had the chance to study Psychology. There was a world out there though, that was unhappy with the idea. It so seemed that 90 % ‘getters’ had to be out of their minds want to graduate in arts! “Oh, did you say Computer Engineering? Okay, will do.” 6 months of programming and I was bored again. I could now not stand the thought of spending another moment studying what else ‘#’ included.

Again – I was chicken and did nothing about it.

4 years whizzed past, and luckily, I chose the perfect job for myself. It was a job that took only as many as 2 years to tell me that I needn’t be chicken all my life, that nothing that # included was going to paint the memories I’d see that one moment before I died and that if I spent anymore time making money for my boss writing thousands of sentences in a language only the computers could understand – I’d have to jump off a cliff (Okay, maybe not. But you get the gist).

It’s been 2 years since I left that dreadful life-changing job – and I haven’t regretted it. When I chose to join Open Your Arms – I’m going to have to admit, I was doing it for my own selfish reasons. Here I was in TISS (Google it, if you couldn’t figure it out), trying to conceptualise a social venture in a field that I wanted to work in, finally trying to make the big shift into the not-so-known-to-me-world and wondering how a computer engineer was ever going to have a good enough answer to the question “What makes you think you have it in you to teach street children empathy?” I thought I had to buck up, and learn something that was of value to me. And my journey at Open Your Arms couldn’t have had a better reason to start.

Today, I’d rather spend my time counselling night-schooling adolescents about their lives, rather than advising my friend how to ‘stay out of the politics in office’. I can’t say in enough words, how peaceful it feels when I see adults realise the power of sharing and understanding each other’s joys and problems. I can’t express how excited I am about all the things I can experiment with here, at Open Your Arms, and all the things I’m going to learn about how hearts and minds run people. And lastly, I can’t thank OYA enough for not judging me by my background and for not frowning in disdain when I said ‘I’m not so good with the computers’.

Thank you OYA for giving me the chance to learn and grow. I admire the job that all of you set out to do every day and I believe in what we’re here for. Here’s wishing us the best in our endeavours.

Human beings are about the heart,
Human beings are about the mind.
When in them there settles a peace,
Peace, the world will find.

-Swetha Ranganathan