Living Life...
I have always been fascinated by the idea of taking a one year break and doing some bit of soul searching...Unfortunately, professional India is still not very open to the idea, and frown upon even a well deserving maternity break ! In the recent past though, I have been increasingly toying with this idea of a break...
I keep going back and forth in my mind and my biggest fears about doing it, are not so much about whether I will be able to return to a great career (I believe, I have reached a stage in my career, where a one year break can be easily justified, in case I want to return to the exciting rat race!). I am worried about how society will perceive it - not in terms of measuring my self worth, which they anyway do, but rather in terms of respecting my time and freedom... I can almost hear people tell me "Oh, now that you are not having a job, you can come for this wedding!" - and I would hate it! ! !
The other more pressing worry is whether my wish for a break is an attempt at camouflaging my desire to run away from responsibilities and ownership and is a silly excuse for being plain lazy...Hubby, has been reassuring me otherwise, but I am still not convinced...I have often talked about friends who have generally not utilized their full potential in not very appreciative terms and I now look at myself with the very same critical attitude even when I am only contemplating a break...
In fact, there are a lot of things I want to do, which I cannot squeeze in with my current career + mom duties, and when I talk about them longingly, my hubby keeps urging me even more to take that 'much needed break'....I want to learn the piano, I want to learn a new language, I want to learn swimming, baking etc etc...and I want to travel the world with my son...Not the hectic London in one week kind of break that I did last year without my son( and every time I saw a cute baby, I would miss him so badly, that I wanted to do as much as possible in those 6 days - hubby at the end of the trip remarked, "Well, I saw almost all of London and Scotland, but I hardly saw YOU"). This time I want a rather liesurely break, where we see maybe one place a day and generally laze around otherwise....
I keep going back and forth in my mind and my biggest fears about doing it, are not so much about whether I will be able to return to a great career (I believe, I have reached a stage in my career, where a one year break can be easily justified, in case I want to return to the exciting rat race!). I am worried about how society will perceive it - not in terms of measuring my self worth, which they anyway do, but rather in terms of respecting my time and freedom... I can almost hear people tell me "Oh, now that you are not having a job, you can come for this wedding!" - and I would hate it! ! !
The other more pressing worry is whether my wish for a break is an attempt at camouflaging my desire to run away from responsibilities and ownership and is a silly excuse for being plain lazy...Hubby, has been reassuring me otherwise, but I am still not convinced...I have often talked about friends who have generally not utilized their full potential in not very appreciative terms and I now look at myself with the very same critical attitude even when I am only contemplating a break...
In fact, there are a lot of things I want to do, which I cannot squeeze in with my current career + mom duties, and when I talk about them longingly, my hubby keeps urging me even more to take that 'much needed break'....I want to learn the piano, I want to learn a new language, I want to learn swimming, baking etc etc...and I want to travel the world with my son...Not the hectic London in one week kind of break that I did last year without my son( and every time I saw a cute baby, I would miss him so badly, that I wanted to do as much as possible in those 6 days - hubby at the end of the trip remarked, "Well, I saw almost all of London and Scotland, but I hardly saw YOU"). This time I want a rather liesurely break, where we see maybe one place a day and generally laze around otherwise....
I am realising more and more that the only priceless possession you have is Time, you can work hard and get more money, you can have a pleasing personality and have more relationships, but no matter what you do, you only have a fixed amount of time in your hands...and if you focus on just one aspect of your life, you just will not have time for anything else....
Comments
Take the break if you are convinced about it. I am waiting to taste the cakes! :-)