during my time at college this past year, i have spent a lot of my time conversing with other people. whether it be about random things like what my weekend plans are or deeper topics like my life ambitions and my “ten year plan,” a lot of the conversations i’ve had have been about these big, lofty dreams that i have. such would be, for example, having my name on the side of a building.
on my flight home for the summer, i was thinking a lot about what had made me have such goals for my life. my parents have always supported me in whatever path i wanted to explore in my life, giving me guidance when they believed i was straying the wrong way, or getting myself into situations they found themselves in, in their past, that they did not want me to repeat. they were never the type to limit me to only a certain track, such as medicine or computer science. meaning, me being in cs now is purely by my own choice.
so, back to what made me have such visions of my life. i finally deciphered it. it’s not a thing, or a place, or some random life-changing moment like they show in the movies. it’s a person. my amma.
she is quite literally the most ambitious woman i know. ever since she was a kid, she knew she wanted to be a doctor. and that’s exactly what she set her life out to do. she got a rank of 154 on the EAMCET, an entrance exam to get into medical school in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. 154 out of 100,000, by the way! then, she came to the US and was to take her interview for residency, but she decided five days before that she wanted to instead make sure she was always there for the family, never missing important events or milestones, and always showing up no matter the day of year or time of day.
at that point, she was a full-time mom, taking care of my brother and i. that was, until she decided to start her own business called Gold ‘N Looks — an Indian boutique that has quite literally anything and everything one might need from Indian jewelry to clothes to pooja items to dance costume jewelry, etc. her business started as a little corner in my childhood home and soon turned into a successful one-stop shop for many, many residents of my hometown… for the last 15 years. the exponential scale of her business is insane, and that too, all the while being an amazing mother of two kids and supportive wife to my dad.
you might be getting a bit overwhelmed by now, and trust me… me too. but that’s not all!
in 2016, she also decided to get a real estate license. i was 10 years old at this point, meaning this was right when i started to get harder to deal with — from me thinking i knew how to do everything to the early teenage tantrums. my brother was 15, so now you can just imagine. full-time mama, entrepreneur, AND real estate agent… i’m still trying to process this myself.
but now you know what i mean.
my amma (mom in Telugu!) never, ever, ever showed me that she couldn’t do something. this was the woman that would take us to school, and all our classes, Tae Kwon Do, Dance, Guitar, Tutoring, Swimming, and more, take care of her business, help people find their dream homes, cook for the family, and so much more, all the while looking absolutely beautiful and graceful while doing it all.
she taught me that i can do quite literally anything and everything i wanted to, as long as i set my mind to it. as long as i loved what i was doing and who i was doing it for, i could do it all.
i genuinely believe that my sights are set so high for my life because my mom taught me that everything is possible, as long as you believe it is.
now that my brother is off working full-time in California, and i’m off at college, it’s just my dad, her, and baby (our dog!) at home. once you no longer have something that you have had for your whole life, you tend to realize how big a part of your life it was. however, the impact that you made and continue to make (and i’m talking to you, amma) will never be forgotten by those who it helped.
an impact made once is one that lasts forever.
so as my mom taught me, not through her words, but her actions: the only limit to our dreams is our own mind. there is absolutely nothing wrong with setting lofty goals. in fact, i’m sure you’ve all heard this quote — “shoot for the moon. even if you fall short, you’ll still land among the stars.” the higher you shoot, the higher you will land.
dream bigger than your mind thinks possible.
don’t give yourself any limits.
you are the secret to unlocking your full potential.
may these words help you in some way throughout your life as they did for me. and happy (not late because it should be celebrated every day) mother’s day to all the women out there who have shown their loved ones that anything is possible, as my amma did mine. wishing you all well, as always.
cheers, so much love, and until next time,
apuroopa