The Frog In The Well
As the famous story goes, there was once a frog who lived in a small well. He was very happy indeed. He had fresh water to drink and swim, loads of mud to play, lots of long juicy insects to eat and the walls to jump around. He felt like the king of the world. One day he had a visitor, a turtle, from the East Sea. He invited the turtle over to come inside his well and look at the magnificent world he is living in. The turtle tried going inside through the narrow opening of the well but got stuck. After much trying,he finally gave up. Realizing how small the well is, he started telling the frog about the great East Sea . He said “ The size of the East Sea is beyond your wildest imagination. Even a distance of a thousand miles cannot give you an idea of the sea’s width; even a height of a thousand feet cannot give you an idea of its depth. In the time of King Da Yu, there were floods nine years out of ten, but the waters in the sea did not increase. ln the time of King Tang there were droughts seven years out of eight, but the waters in the sea did not decrease. The sea does not change along with the passage of time and its level does not rise or fall according to the amount of rain that falls. Living in the East Sea is the greatest happiness”. Hearing these words, the frog felt very insignificant and realized how limited his perspective was.
When i was younger, my perspective was limitless. I wanted to be an astronaut one day, a painter the other and an actress some other day. The options were so may. I remember once asking my mom if i can become four things together. I just wanted to do everything I could lay my hands on. Then something terrible happened, I grew up. The more I grew the more I started limiting myself. I still remember how impatient I was in college to come into this world and start working, become independent, earn money and be happy becoming a software engineer. After my placement at a reputed company i got a project where i got to work in Java. Java is everywhere these days. Its the “stable” technology as they call it. Everyone around me who got Java felt lucky and wanted to make a career here. I didn’t quite like it. I realized I hated it after a year into it. Until that year i was also like that frog.Java was my comfort zone now, i didn’t want to get out of it. No matter how much ever i boast of being hardworking, i just didn’t want to change my line of technology because i will have to unlearn and relearn something new. I felt it will somehow make me fall back in this competitive world. This is just a small example form my life. The more and more I was growing up the more I started to restrain myself from doing stuff I loved and more entangled my life into this web I myself was spooning around me intentionally yet unintentionally and ironically felt comfortable in it. Probably this web is called — comfort zone.
Everything was fine until one day I went out and started speaking to this lady in the metro right next to me. She was wearing this very beautiful hand painted scarf and was reading this travel book.We started chatting and she started telling me about herself. She was an investment banker but looked nothing like it. I always had stereotyped them into a sect of haughty looking people all suited and booted. She was also an avid reader and novel critique, painter and social worker. She used to travel a lot and did whatever little she could manage in terms of social work. I asked her how did she manage at her job? She said she manages well, all her college-mates who had studied investment banking with her were somewhere a little up the ladder than her, but she felt what probably they couldn't- happy and passionate. She loved her job mind you, but she didn’t let go of the other things she loved either. She exuded such positivism and knowledge all I could do was listen and get inspired.
I guess she was my turtle. She told me there is more to the world than you can imagine. Its your choice either to live in the well and feel like the king of the world or come out of it and feel insignificant but passionate and spirited.
