A long wishlist: Reflecting seven years later

Seven years ago, I blogged about a long wish list (link) penning down many of my desires at the time. Lot has passed in my life and in world since (one word - COVID!) - I'm on the other side of 30 now and a mother of twin girls! One of the reasons why I love to blog, is that it is very interesting to look back and reflect on what we've written about. I'm now revisiting this wish list for fun, to see what has changed, in another long post, be warned :) 

The ones that I can tick:

1) Writing a poem for my special person: I ended up doing it the same year as his birthday present - Here is the link if you're curious to read :) What's special is I still stand by it and my feelings haven't changed, which is something I'm very grateful for.

2) Learning music: With the constant narrative that all cool things in life end at 30, and especially after becoming a mother, I would have never imagined that I would start learning singing (Carnatic music) again after giving birth to kids. Life has its own plans on how it should take shape - we have to keep faith. I've let myself go to explore, practice and regain some lost confidence. Well, I didn't learn the exact same songs I blogged about, but I learnt quite a few classical pieces. You can't match every stroke perfectly with your imaginary sketch, so on the whole, I am quite happy with my progress. Learning an art is for lifetime, and I intend to continue this in future too. Music brings the spiritual aspect to my life and I am grateful to my teacher for giving me the gift of singing.

3) Learning dance: I honestly I think I've outdone what I originally wished for in this - which was just to not have two left feet and be able to do basic dance moves. Like with music, I started learning dance too after giving birth to kids, and progressed to my satisfaction. Of course I was really pathetic to start with but persistence paid off and I can do 6 min dance sequences now. It would be ungrateful to not credit my teacher who has been super-patient with me all the while. This has given me faith that it is never too late to learn something new in life.

4) Travel fantasies: I did travel to Europe a lot, and visited Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Vatican, Czech and Germany. With a series of twists and turns, I managed to visit Kashmir and Ajanta-Ellora in India too. There are more domestic and non-European destinations I'd like to see now :)

5) Rekindling romance: Well... I got the look... you know the one I'm talking about... from him... finally! Need I say more? :P We've managed to reignite the romance successfully after kids. And that's enough info here :)

6) Working abroad: What with doing MBA abroad after kids, and interning with a BigTech firm here, this has been a very revitalising experience giving me the much needed step-back to recharge myself. Of all the ones on my wishlist, this is one thing which happened the way somewhat along the lines of how I guessed it might have!

7) Cooking: When I was writing about this in my wishlist, I wasn't sure when or how exactly this was going to transpire with the schedule that I had. You guessed it 100% right - COVID brought upon the emergence of lockdown chefs like me and now I cook regularly :)

The ones saved for future:

1) Updating this blog regularly: Considering my target of two posts per week, I definitely failed miserably on this one - especially after twins the volume went down dramatically. I don't think I made it to even two posts per month. But hey, I'm blogging still seven years later, and that counts for something - Glass is half-empty :P

2) Writing a book: Did not happen. I'm not sure if people read books anymore - I've paused on this, but haven't given up hopes. It may happen in a strange turn of events at unexpected time like with so many of the earlier ones on my wishlist.

3) Perfect figure: Umm.. my views and understanding of body positivity have evolved a lot in the last seven years. So I am not even sure if I still want to keep this on my wishlist because it is against my principles to impose a 'perfect' body image which women (or anyone) must achieve at all costs. But I am fit and talking walks and doing dance and all, touchwood, so I may cross this one off the list.

4) Taking walks: This is somewhere in between. I'm a regular walker now, with a beautiful park close to my house here and all, but that's not all that I had in mind when I wrote about this before. I also wanted to do longer walks, like for 3-4 hours, from one destination to another, to re-energise myself. And I must be honest in admitting it didn't pan out that way.

5) Reading more: It's a great time to revisit it now with physical books. Especially the de-addiction from screen with more reading is much needed!

6) Adopting a girl child: This hasn't happened yet, but we've not given up. Me and my husband have discussed this again. With the twins happening and a lot of uncertainty going on, we're waiting for the right time when we may proceed with this.

7) Learning a sport: Conventional wisdom dictates that learning a new sport from the higher side of 30 is futile. But lots of things which happened to me didn't abide by conventional wisdom!! So I've not given up hopes to start this one sometime in the future.

What I learnt:

On looking back, it's balance. There're hits and misses. It feels very calm, soothing and energising at the same time to do this :) But the most important takeaways for me are:

1. Have dreams. Just don't get fixated on the specifics. Be open, have faith and persistence and life will surprise you.

2. Life is a long journey of learning. It is never too late to learn something new.

3. Sometimes, it is okay to pause on something and let life take its course to revisit it later. You cannot do all at once but have faith that you'll have time somewhere down the line.

So I'm all recharged now. What do you all think of my journey? Would love to hear in comments.

Related posts:

1. A long wishlist!! - link

2. Reflections on what I want to write about - link

3. Five reasons why I love to blog - link