Dogmas Defining Our Lives

We all are told, “Do this and you’ll be happy.” “Do this and you’ll be successful.” “Do this and you’ll have tons of money and will achieve all your dreams.” But when we do as they say, what really happens? Are we happy? Do we retire with our passions fulfilled? Do we paint that landscape we thought we would, one day? Do we get a degree in literature that we thought we would, after we get that architecture degree? Do we just look up to Disney Imagineers and admire them, or… do we become one?

I completed my 10th grade this year. And there stood this Big question, a question regarding what I should be going for. Science? Management? Humanities? Law? If it were just me, there would not have been a second thought. It would certainly be Humanities.

But I enrolled for Science. I still have the time to change my decision but that’s that. I’ll be going for it like every other person who did so because they have been told Humanities is inferior, from an angle or the other. I did so, in the same hope that, maybe, I’ll get to live on my own terms, get places I have always dreamed of and learn things I have always meant to.

The average Nepali life revolves around these dogmas that other people enforce upon us. Rules and principles that, as they say, shape our lives perfectly. And because we are young and clueless, and because we have no voice of our own, we have no option but to do as we are told, while we dream for something else. They ensure us security in life but when we – as employees – face the darkest days, these guiding father figures are never around to provide us some help.

Most of us live our lives following what other people say is ‘the right thing to do’. We spend most of our time learning the societal rules and regulations hoping to fit in the herd. We let the aspirations, which we once held so dearly, die and get stuck in the humdrum of life. While avoiding to take risks and walking in the path of certainties, we avoid the possibilities of having our dreams come true or creating something of our own.

However, all is not lost. There are people who dare to defy these dogmas, and take risks and chances. These are the people who make a difference.