They say “The world is full of magical things, waiting for you to get smart enough to notice them”.

They also say “When the student is ready, the teacher appears”.

Both these statements place a certain responsibility on the individual, which is ‘you’, to be ready and willing to expand his horizons and take learning from all of life’s experiences. And once you become ready to receive learning from any and every experience life has to throw at you, you will be delighted to see all the unusual places these learnings come from.

I wish to share one such learning experience with you all. This experience might not sound like a big deal to you maybe, but it was one such experience that taught me the most beneficial lesson of my life.

Many years ago, while I was still in school, I was a shy and introverted young boy. I had this fear inside that if I open up in front of people, they won’t like me or accept me. I had a few good friends but was always afraid to make new friends because of this fear that I had.

One day, when I was at my home, it started raining. And as I stood at the house’s window looking outside at the delightful weather, I saw the other kids of the locality get outside their homes and launch off onto the streets with their friends on scooties and bicycles. This made me sad. Because even though I had friends, I often stayed inside the home fearing that they don’t like my company a lot. I still remember that I spent at least an hour inside my home that day, brooding over my sad situation.

But maybe, I had had enough. I couldn’t stand staying inside and I just put on my slippers and moved outside. I didn’t carry my phone, or any money. I just started walking in the rain with no destination in mind. I just kept walking and walking wherever I felt like. Maybe I was trying to escape the feeling of sorrow and inadequacy that was gnawing at me back at the house. I didn’t actually plan on finding anything remarkable when I had decided to walk in the rain alone; but this is where this enigmatic life threw an opportunity at me.

As I was walking past an unknown park, pretty far away from my locality, I saw a few other kids playing there with a football. I was especially fond of playing football and was rather good at it. But I was scared to go inside and ask to play because of the same fear I had, that “they won’t like me”.

I was immediately flooded with all the negative emotions I was trying to walk away from. But this time I had an insight, an opening. It’s like an external voice spoke to me. I suddenly knew that if I want to move past my fears I have to dare. Dare to talk to new people, dare to put myself out there, dare to connect when there is no prior connection.

With this new insight brimming inside me, I walked inside the park and asked those kids if I could play. To my surprise, they were elated to see me. They obviously wanted more people to play so that everybody could have more fun and they were glad that I came over. That old scared me had never thought from this perspective. That maybe, just like I was craving for connection but was afraid to ask for it, other people were feeling the same thing in their lives. They too wanted the company of other people and were afraid that they won’t be accepted. But anytime someone else reached out to them, to connect, to play, they were delighted to have that opportunity.

That day I played with these new friends for hours and had the best time possible. I also moved past my fear of people because I started empathizing instead of being afraid.

That day I also learned two lessons. I got out of the house even though I didn’t know I was going to find anything good outside. I still made the decision to keep walking in the rain till the time I came across something good. Another turning point was when I was presented with an opportunity, I dared to seize it. Spirit and Daring, these were the two lessons that I learned that day.

That fateful enigmatic experience taught me that “In life, whenever things are not right; just keep walking. And when you see something that you want, have the guts to go for it”. Spirit and Daring!