ONE does what one can, until one’s destiny is revealed, said Tom Cruise in “The Last Samurai” to his Japanese overlord when they were discussing the concept of destinies. For much of my life, I believed that a person is born with a fixed destiny — a predetermined path laid out like a map, waiting to be followed. But as the years unfolded, and as I looked back across the remarkable, turbulent, and deeply human terrain of my own existence, I came to understand something far more nuanced: that destiny is not a destination. It is a gradual revelation. And in my case, it has revealed itself across four distinct lives, all lived within one lifetime.

The first life: Confusion and searching: My first life occupied roughly the first two decades of my existence. If I were to give it a name, I would call it the Season of Confusion. It was a time of deep, unspoken depression — though I would not have used that word then. I was restless, dissatisfied, unable to accept the well-worn template that billions of human beings before me had followed without question. I could not find the purpose of my being. The standard answers that society offered felt hollow. I lost myself in the distractions of youth, going through the motions without understanding why. It was, in hindsight, the necessary darkness before a long dawn.

The second life: Learning and responsibility: My second life began when I left for Boston and entered college.........

© Pakistan Observer