The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe. - H. L. Mencken
I resigned from my job and decided to leave the cubicle nation for good. On May 9th, 2011, after months of planning and years of desire to do this, I finally took the plunge and resigned from my job. Today is my last day at work. A question that everyone asked me was where I am going next. Do I have a job lined up? Are you going back to the US? I decided to open up and tell them that I am going to be living a life of freedom to do only those things that I always wanted to do but kept postponing for one reason or the other.
This new chapter begins with an end to my career in the field of information technology. In about three weeks, after spending nearly eighteen years in distant shores, I will be returning to my homeland, India. I and my wife Sobha resolved to dedicate our lives to the cause of education and to provide for those who desire to get educated but have no means. We share the same thoughts on this and we are convinced that what we are doing is right.
Arriving at this decision was a long journey that started with two questions.
What did I do!!
When I moved from India to the US, I moved there with just two bags. When I received my first 500 dollar stipend from the University, I thought I had hit a jackpot. A few years later a much bigger pay check was always too little and too late! We bought a big house and filled it with so much stuff that the very thought of accepting a new opportunity and moving out of Cleveland caused a paralytic shut down. A few years later I found myself completely hunkered down by so much baggage, both physical and non-physical, that it made it impossible to move anywhere else. My life was on an unending treadmill ride, moving constantly but staying at the same place. It dawned on me later that whatever I acquired was like one more chain around my body that grounded me even more than the previous acquisition. It was a revelation to me that the possessions that I had accumulated over a period of time were actually possessing me! That’s when the first set of questions surfaced – When did I lose control over what I possessed and more importantly what did I do with my life? This simple question started a deep introspection that lasted several weeks and months. I finally decided to act!
The change began with our move to Singapore in June 2009. We got rid of a majority of our stuff. We had two cars, two TVs, two dining tables, a large couch set, a tread mill (how ironic!), a desktop, a large office table and bunch of other things. Everything was gone, except for two beds and a large dining table that we regrettably moved with us to Singapore. After we moved to Singapore I started seeing life in a different light. A smaller 3 bedroom apartment was easier to clean and manage than a 4 bedroom independent house. Now there is no lawn to mow nor is there a big house to maintain and pay for. Less is more is the new mantra that gave me a lot of free time. I started this blog and spent more time on the activities that I am truly interested in. Life acquired a new meaning. But that was not enough and that is when the second question surfaced. It was there all along, it just resurfaced to the top.
If I had all the money in the world…
If I suddenly win a big lottery, will I go back to my cubicle job the next day? The answer was a resounding no. Please don’t get me wrong, the cubicle job paid my bills, my mortgage and for many other things for many years. I do not think a cubicle life crushes your soul. As I realize now, a cubicle job was necessary for my survival. My job and I were in some kind of a marriage of convenience. There was no love, just some mutual agreement to live in peace with each other. I was passionate about technology and I reinvented myself every few years. Later I realized that my career is not in alignment with my life’s purpose. It was just a convenience that is being handled with vigor and passion. I soon got weary of it.
When I was a teenager I told myself that one day I will help my nation and millions of its poor. There was fire in my belly and a desire to do something for the sake of our nation. Going to the US was a blessing that helped me take care of my life and its insecurities. But soon all my childhood dreams were conveniently forgotten. I joined the capitalistic bandwagon and amused myself with the thought that a life of materialistic pursuits is too good to let go. I believed that money and riches will bring happiness. Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich”, and Robert Kiyosaki’s “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” were my favorite books that I read again and again. Alas, even vanity has an expiration date! I soon realized that these materialistic pursuits, aided and abetted by a well paying job, do not necessarily buy happiness let alone fulfill my purpose.
Seeking an alternative model…
I asked myself what will happen if I rolled back my income by 50% and bought 50% more free time. How can I get my basic needs met and still manage to pursue my life’s purpose? Is a continuous stream of income a necessity for a living? The answer that was coming back to me repeatedly in increasing loudness and clarity is that there is an alternative model. I am convinced that I can work out a model for living a life that is not tied to a cubicle job that takes majority of my time and resources. This is especially true if it is a job that I am likely to quit if I win a lottery!
The alternative, I think, is to seek a simple life where the basic needs are met and there are no desires to own luxuries of any kind. The cost of the basic needs will not and should not get you imprisoned in a cubicle. I will seek a minimal life where I will have everything that I need and nothing that I do not need. For example I will neither need a new mobile phone every two years nor do I need a new laptop whenever a new model is out. I will get a new one only when the old is completely dead and unusable. I will not need a large house with expensive furniture to live in; a simple setting is just good enough. I will have no need to travel to exotic places, I will have no need to wear expensive clothing, I will have no need for many things. All I need is a roof on the head, a few clothes to cover my body and a simple meal for sustenance. With minimal needs I can manage my life with minimal income. When there is no struggle to maintain high income to sustain an expensive lifestyle, the life suddenly expands and presents itself with a number of opportunities to fulfill your dreams. I think this is the alternative model of living that I will pursue the rest of my life.
I have outlined the alternative model in just a few sentences. I have been thinking and modeling this alternative for a while now. At a very high level it can be summed up in three words – less is more. The details are too many and too difficult to put down in just one write-up. I believe that this new model is right for me.
As we start a new life and a new career I hope to use this blog and several articles that follow not only to document this transformation that is taking place in me but also all the activities that I will take up. I hope to succeed in this new adventure, but not necessarily in the way that I think it would pan out. I am cautious, optimistic and very excited. I am happy that I chose freedom over safety.
{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Sahadev,
Good luck on you new adventure and I look forward to see how you progress.
Daniel
Thanks Daniel.
Dear Mr Sahadev
I never met you and came to know about you through my brother Ramakanth in US. I like your blogs which are highly informative and thought provoking. Of course spirituality is very dear to me and i consider it as part and meaning of very existence of our life. Understanding life is the most difficult issue and from your write up it looks like that you have started getting into right groove. I know many people are successful in career but failures in life. Choosing and believing the right path is the ultimate success. Wish you all the best
Ramakrishna
Dear Mr. Ramakrishna, I think we are sailing in the same boat. I consider spirituality to be as fundamentally important as the food we eat and the air we breath. So true about choosing and believing the right path. Thanks!
” Less is more is the new mantra that gave me a lot of free time” – wow!! You are a true inspiration for a lot of people like me. In awe with your decision and I so want to support in whatever way i can to your cause and see if I can get used to this mantra of yours in someway in my life.
Meena, thanks for your comments and words of encouragement. I will count on your support. Less is more is a very old adage but we consistently ignore it.. I am fortunate to rediscover it and adopt it as a way of life. Try it even in a small measure you will find it super useful.
Sai Ram,
I was very interested to read your article and about your journey through life. I commend and admire you for your choices and I think it is wonderful that you have chosen to serve society through education in India. I am a bit curious about your ‘less is more’ adage, however. Many of us already do what you say you are doing, e.g. using a laptop until it is no longer usable or making do with the minuimum , e,g, minimal clothes, furniture etc. I cannot imagine discarding a perfectly good laptop to get the newest on the market, or afford the latest phone and at the same time be able to travel to Puttaparthi or other places frequently which I like to do! While I like having new clothes, I have to balance this desire with setting aside resources for other needs like my children’s needs or perhaps donations to others if I am able to do so . Many of my clothes are more than 15 years old and I see no shame in admitting this or wearing these clothes if they are still in good condition. Life teaches you that so much can be done with excess cash or resources instead of getting bigger and better of the same. Sometimes, this ‘choice’ is borne of necessity, sometimes it is a choice, either way, it then comes to seem like a sensible choice anyway, even while we are still living in the materialistic, rat-race world. I don’t know whether I would agree with several people living in small places being a good idea though, as several people here have mentioned. I think a person’s individual space is important for their peace and growth. Look at most of the village houses in India — the average ones are pretty spacious, small apartments are a city phenomenon and not very healthy. But then, that is my personal view. I guess what I am trying to say is that that your mention of this — less is more — discarding furniture, cars atc did not seem like such a revelation that one would only realise the value of living with minimal material possessions after retiring to the depths of India or any other remote place though admittedly in a place like Singapore or the US where you are measured,judged and weighted by your material possessions, social and professional standing, this may be more challenging. But, it is acheivable nevertheless — if one stands firm in one’s convictions and self-belief.
Sai Ram,
Thanks for your detailed response. I am personally very touched by your comments. You are already living a minimal and saintly life if you are using clothes, laptop and other items that are in useful condition even if they are old. But I have seen many people who buy stuff just because it is new and cool. You can look at any average American home(sorry to say this) built in the suburbs, there are many things that people buy and not use. Their closets are full of clothes that they did not wear for years. Even I had plenty of things in our own home that we did not use for a long time. What bothered me the most is the splurge in unnecessary buying that batters not only our personal finances but also the environment we live in. A life of obsessive buying is unsustainable in the long run. We lived in a four bedroom house while a two bedroom apartment would have been just fine. Much of our expenses were around the mortgage, insurance, lawn maintenance, and a host of other house related things. I bought a new phone every other year. I articulated what was going on in my mind in another post titled How much is enough. When I looked at my life and how it is working out, I realized that starting to live a more simple life would make it is easy for me to transition to a more purposeful living. Moving to Singapore helped. We did not have a car and happily used public transportation. Everyone suggested that I can afford a car and therefore should get one! We lived in an apartment with a simple but elegant setting. We stopped buying things and started giving away excess items. Excess items are those items that we bought and never used or used very sparingly or those items for which a need was created when none existed. I started feeling very light once I started parting with things. There is an unbelievably strong message in the simple adage “less luggage more comfort”. I fully agree with you that simple living is a sensible “choice”, but nevertheless a choice. For people for whom this is a necessity life appears to be unfulfilled and sad, the key word being necessity. There are others for whom it is neither a choice nor a necessity, that is just a way of life. They are blissfully ignorant of the choices out there!
Regarding small spaces, it really boils down to what fits you as an individual. The kind of people who live in large houses in villages in India are a different breed. An average village person, at least in my area, lives in a shanty place that many would consider to be absolutely inhabitable. However I see your point when you say that a person’s individual space is important for their peace and growth. But I think it is not about how big or how small this space is, but how it fits into his individual being. A large space that is unclean and cluttered does not contribute to the growth of an individual, but a smaller, yet optimal, space that is simple, clean, elegant and well managed certainly helps.
You should really visit us and see how lavishly people around us live. The gap between the rich and the poor is very striking. The people around me are constantly nudging me to buy that and buy this. Why? Because that is how normal people live. They are complaining that I am not enjoying life and I have lost interest in life and that it would be a dangerous situation to be in!! There is greater pressure in India to live lavishly. In the US and Singapore nobody really cared about how you lived…
That said, may I request you to write down your thoughts in the form of a guest post on this blog? You have wonderful ideas and an uncanny ability to articulate them in beautiful words.
Wonderful article….well said….
Thanks Ganesh!
What you are about to embark on is truly inspirational! I hope that we too get to follow our calling soon. We all wish you and Shobha all the best on your new endeavor.
Sharmishtaji, thanks. When the calling is strong even you will not be able to stop yourself. That is what I experienced. It was too strong to resist, ignore and not to think of. I am glad we are able to do this… but the next big thing for us is to walk the talk for the rest of our lives.
Dear Sahadev,
Kudos to you and Sobha for such a wonderful step ahead in life. You are far ahead of all of us who were with you in the journey and I will look forward to read about your adventures in life. Thank you for deciding to document your thought process. These are universal thoughts and the struggles of every human born in the world. You are a true karma yogi, one has to pass through several stages of mind to reach the true nature of mind and you are that much closer. Your words are inspiration for me to not to lose sight of my desire for simplicity. Such a decision could not be made if both halves of a couple are not perfectly aligned and I congratulate you and Sobha for this. I read your blog to my husband and he feels he knows you even without having met you. He has requested that I introduce you to him and God willing we will meet in India next time we are there. We wish you all the very best and pray for your success.
Gayathri.
Dear Gayathri, Thanks for your kind words of encouragement. My first exposure to non-profits is through you, Nandini, Gautam, Bharadwaj, Vineet and Sunitha at Asha for Education. I think the first seeds of this transformation were sown during those days. I was deeply impressed by your commitment to the causes that you took up even though you had your own firm commitments at the University. I and Sobha are in full agreement with what we are doing, although we are pinching ourselves these days to know whether all this is really true. We have been planning for this for a very long time. Now that we are just a few weeks away from the big move and big commitments we are constantly telling each other how important it is to walk the talk and stay firmly grounded while we realize our dream to work for the cause of education in India. I hope to meet you and your husband, please drop me a line whenever you are on your way to India and we can certainly find a good meeting spot!
hi sahadev,
nice to see you doing this. i know it takes courage and conviction. for all our sakes i really want to see you enjoy yourself …coz it will motivate more of us to follow in your footsteps….regards
Hi Jagan, Thanks for bring up the importance of enjoying ourselves as we start this new life. It is a great suggestion and I will remember it forever.
Dear Shadevji,
What an introspection! It is amazing to read your article.
“Less luggage more comfort” is such a profound statement. You might be interested to learn that I always dreamt of having a small hut in the midst of a large green lush farm. Not sure if that was the thought behind what I got as everytime we expand our family we moved a smaller space from 2 to one BR and 3to 1.5BR. Surprisingly, our best memories were created in those smaller spaces and it does excites me. Following your heart is always the best path to take and our hearty best wishes to you and Shoba akka!
Best,
Deepa Vedavyas
Dear Deepaji, Thanks. It is so true that our best memories are usually associated with smaller houses that we lived in. Big houses always bring back the memories of long clean up activities. Simple living does not necessarily mean living in poverty(voluntary or otherwise). If there is no contentment in simple living than it is not really simple anymore!
Sai Ram Mr Sahadev
As I read your story, I thought I was reading about me. I just move back to my home town, Bridgetown, Barbados. All my need are met. I play with my grand and great-grandchildren and I am happy all the time. I am just enjoying being with me. Peace enjoy you life.
Sai Ram Heather,
We both are very delighted to hear from you. I am very privileged and happy to read your comments. What a way to live! You have all the needs taken care and you are living a contended and happy life with grand and great-grandchildren. WOW! We both are very happy for you. I like the way you said it : “I am just enjoying being with me”. I want to learn to say that and live that way. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Hi Saha: This is the first time i am seeing your blog(s) – directed by your email. Very well written 🙂 Regarding your decision to return to your ‘roots’, I must say I am impressed but not at all surprised . . . knowing you. You stand tall among all of us who only think, plan and talk but do not accomplish anything. We are prisoners of a life that we created for ourselves – and probably do not have your level of courage & conviction to break free and start afresh. Further, we have created ‘loving’ bonds that seem to be ever tightening around us. But all is not lost – i am looking forward to interact with you as you settle down in India and look for opportunities where i could contribute in my own way. Congrats on the great step – and i must not forget to appreciate Sobha equally for her unstinting support and being such a great positive influence in your life. Call me once you are in India.
Jagan.
Hi Jagan,
Very early in our college days we developed lasting friendships. The ingenuity and sharpness in our group of friends was contagious and we learnt a great deal from each other. Thanks to those days at EPOC we all developed higher levels of conviction and courage. We all have the same level of longing to return to our roots. I am sure we will all eventually return to our roots of simple lives we had back then. Sobha brought in a new level of simplicity to our lives and we both were able to reverse our materialistic pursuits largely because of the spirituality adopted by her. I simply started making changes accordingly and slowly rediscovered my own spirituality that was part and parcel of my life during our college days. We gave each other the necessary support. Going forward it is important for both of us to remain grounded and understand that this new life is just a means towards an end and not an end in itself.
Sairam Sahadev and Shobha,
Kudos to you both for listening to the inner voice and following your heart. Keep us posted with your activities. The world is a rat race and each individual has the freedom to choose at what pace they want to lead their lives. I applaud you for the path you have taken and as swami says listen to your innernet instead of internet:-) . You and shobha have always humbled me with your selfless love and humility and I wish you from my heart, all the best and success in the path of service and spirituality.
shivankari sanjeevan
Sairam Shivankari, Thanks for taking time to write your words of support and encouragement. We benefited greatly from the love and affection of all our friends in Cleveland and Singapore. That way we are indeed very fortunate. Going forward our behavior is going to be a reflection of the positive influence of our friends. It is largely because of that I think we are equipped to go into the future boldly.
Dear Sahadev,
Ability to do what you want to – gives new meaning to life. This is a courageous decision. Knowing you for so many years, it did not come as a surprise to me. I’m sure you’ll do well and scores will be benefited by your actions.
With Best Wishes,
Sarathy
Dear Sarathy, As a good friend of mine for many many years I know that I would get nothing but kind words of appreciation and encouragement.
Hi Sahadev!
This is truly inspiring. Many thanks and praises to the almighty who lead you into this path.
May God bless you with immense strength to ride through and inspire newer generation. In the world of 2G scams and many, ur life truly causes a paradigm shift required for millions.
India is truly looking to welcome back people like you !
Let me know if I can be of help in any way.
Please let me know when you are here in Hyderabad.
Regards
Sridhar Chitturu
Sahadev ,
Good Luck to you and shobha on the new endeavor. I do believe following your heart is the best way to find meaning, hope, comfort, and inner peace in your life. Your decision is truly inspirational in many ways. please do keep us posted on your new adventure.
Dear Sahadev,
It is good to see that you are following your path, that is indeed less travelled.
The questions you asked are relevant to most of us.
1) What are we seeking? The most common answer to that question is that we want ourselves and our families, our communities, our country and the world to be happy.
2) How are we pursuing our happiness? The answer to this question is tricky and requires honest reflection. The usual answer boils down to pursuing 4Ps – Profit, Power, Pleasure, Prestige. The path(s) one chooses depends on ones attachments, likes and dislikes.
3) Does this approach lead to lasting happiness? From experience I can say, not really. The 4Ps do make you temporarily happy. There is no lasting happiness in anything that excites/agitates the mind. In fact blindly/selfishly pursuing these 4Ps lead us down the path of more unhappiness and unrest, the opposite of what we were seeking in the first place. May be right education is the answer to lasting happiness.
We are happy to see that you are choosing to dedicate your time to the field of education. As you know, though the regular education (memorization of facts, problem solving etc.) helps, the real education may focus more on character building and teaching timeless human values that makes the world a better place for all.
We are aware of the magnitude of the challenges you may be facing in the coming years and may be decades. We seek to be a part of your journey in our little way. Thank you for being an inspiration. Love to you and Sobha.
Rafi, That is a great sequence of questions – what are we seeking, how and does it help? You answered them well. Right education with human values is indeed the right answer. In addition we humans must realize that it is not what we have but what we do that matters the most. I would like to draw your attention to another article I wrote about education and happiness. Thanks for your words of encouragement, I am already counting on you as my co-traveler in this journey. I enjoyed having those long conversations with you. Your insights into personal development and spirituality have been a source of inspiration for me for over 16 years now!
Saha – Best wishes in your new chapter. Brings back our conversations in Dec at your place. Hope to interact more and support you in whichever way we can. – Bala
Bala, Thanks! Yes we should continue our discussion on this topic…
Hi Sahadev,
Very well written. ‘Less is more’ should be the mantra of this age. The sooner the realisation of ‘Less is more’ dawns upon us the better.
Our biggest enemy is the borders that we create around ourselves. Borders around materaial life, racial distinction, self is above all and the like.
When one is radically different, the person becomes an object of intense interest. Some eyebrows will be raised and questions are asked and ‘news of failure’ is awaited with patience.
Attitude is more important than facts. What we think, we become. Many people will celebrate if one is successfull, fewer will tread.
May your work becomes a shining example for few others to emulate.
BTW, philosophy apart. I have drastically cut my voracious appetite for ‘animal protiens’ (ha…ha..read beef,pork,mutton….). My humble self found out , after much google and soul searching, that our devastaing appetite for ‘meat’ is ruining our planet. 40% of methane emmisons and 30% of burning of fossil fuel burning is a direct result of our irresponsible ‘meat eating’. On the same amount of land needed to produce one Kg of meat, 200 kilos of tomatoes or 160 kilos of potatoes could be grown in the same time span. Needless to say that such farms, that exclusively dedicated to produce anaimal feed uses much needed water, genetically modified (GM) cattle feed, and vast agricultural land which could be better used to produce rice, wheat, veggies to feed an hungier world population. I thought…Man wait a minute…what am I doing. My food habit needs to change sooner than later. This madness cannot go on for ever, I will care later if other people are changing their selection of food, but I need to start changing fast.
You will agree with me, that we humans are living on ‘borrowed time’, out next generation will live in a more insecure and lot more tortured planet.
Please keep writing and share your candid thoughts, more on the hazards of ‘cubicle nation’ and the ‘cuboids’.
Bidyut, Less is more mantra worked for me. It transformed my life. I encourage you to read Thoreau’s Walden. He successfully illustrated how little we really need to live a sustainable life. Regarding the animal proteins part, I agree the less the world depends on meat products the better it is for the world’s environment. I have some of my friends and students(in Singapore) who took up vegetarian diet after learning about the same things that you have researched and found out.
“When one is radically different, the person becomes an object of intense interest. Some eyebrows will be raised and questions are asked and ‘news of failure’ is awaited with patience.” – This is something very interesting thing to think about. Those who seek to be different and fail, they might stand out as an example of why one should not seek to be different. But honestly, what exactly does failure mean? If one measure success by the 4Ps that Rafi mentioned(see his note in this thread) then they may have failed. But in my opinion this failure is in actuality a misunderstood success, because the radically different are not really seeking the 4Ps and they already know the 4Ps model fails to give them what they really want.
best wishes to you both!!
Dear MagicEye!
Thanks Much!. I saw your blog and you have some very nice pics and videos of Mumbai.
Hello Sahadev,
This is Balaji’s cousin..hope you remember me…
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article..very well written!
I can’t but admire the courage you and your wife have shown in taking this huge step. I do sincerely wish you both all the success in whatever you plan to accomplish. I admire your courage to stand up to your convictions. The same conviction will slide you through any hurdles coming along the way…keep it up!
Hi Jaya,
I do remember you! Thanks for your words of encouragement. “The same conviction will slide you through any hurdles coming along the way…” – This is what I have been telling my wife too.. the same conviction that brought us to this point will also help us moving forward.
Dear Sahadev,
Woderful !
I feel you have chosen the path to ‘Divine’. The meaning of Life. Really Proud of you.
Wishes forever
– Karuppaiya.
Karup, Thank you. The meaning of life as with divinity keeps shifting the moment you think you arrived at it. But we are left with no choice but to keep chasing it.
Hi Sahadev,
What a great writings! I totally agree with your saying “Less is more”, which is so true. We moved last year from 3bed 2 bath to a smaller apartment so that we are close the kids schools. Surprisingly our family bonding has jumped up exponentially. Kids learned to share, sleep on floor, if guests are at home, like how we grew up back in India. I wish I can write like you and share my thoughts, but my writing skills are so bad. I’m glad I have college mate like you who is the best author I knew.
Good luck on you new life model and keep us posted.
-Anitha
Hi Anitha,
Thanks! Living in smaller spaces actually help families bond well. Many in the Western world find this difficult to comprehend. I am sure we will all realize, sooner or later, that equating luxurious life with higher levels of happiness is an unsustainable model.
Thanks for sharing…I just saw in facebook that you will be taking up a new role in education in Sathya Sai School! Bravo…Lot us dream of these things – but few of us do…Hope to join you sometime soon.
Cheers,
-Sreeram
Thanks. When you are ready to take the plunge, please drop me a line. Looking forward…
Radhe krishna Sahadev!
Its very inspirational to read this and I am waiting for The Calling to make such a move.
Thanks
Raj
Dear Raj, when the calling comes nothing can stop you. That was my experience. I was very restless during the last few weeks of my stay in the cubicle nation. 🙂
When I met you late time you gave me a hint about such a move, I must say not all can do what you have decided. You seem to do what you like and like what you do.
Probably one fine day I get to say to all that I too know Sahadev!!! Good luck.
Cheers,
Manoj
Dear Sahadev,
So encouraging to read your articles. Hope you started enjoying your life in Nandigama. I’m fan of your site. Devotional, Divineful and very encouraging. May God give you enough strength to enlighten more children of your surroundings.
Regards,
Venkat
Sairam brother,
Inspiring thought. Less is more.
Sairam Popuri.
Hi Sahadev,
Your article is thought provoking and also inspirational to me. I’m also living overseas but at times wonder whether I’m really happy from inside. The process of finding a meaning in my life has been elusive so far. But I take your life as a lesson and seek to do somehting worthwhile in my lifetime.
May you have a great life ahead.
Best Wishes,
Vasanth
Hi Vasanth,
Thanks for your comments. The world really opens up very nicely for you once you start following your passion. I shall be forever proud of my big decision to move back and pursue my passion in the field of education. I hope you will one day follow your heart and get closer to finding a meaning in life. Good luck and best wishes.