Technically, it’s that messy-haired walk you take, wearing the same clothes as last night, after having hooked up with someone. However, I’d like to believe it’s the walk you take, every time you’re embarrassed, nervous or downright devastated. Because honestly, how many of us are truly embarrassed about having a one night stand anyway? 

My walk of shame has always been whenever I’ve been asked to speak to a bunch of people about my life and where I see it going. Walking towards that podium, stage or whatever else there is, I’ve always wished for something to happen, anything that’d let me get out of speaking. Not because public speaking or oration aren’t my strongest points but because I’ve never have much to say. 

I don’t plan my life. Never have, never will. So talking about where I see my life going has always been difficult. But more importantly, why do I even have to plan? 

Standing in front of strangers – in a new class in school, introducing yourself in college or giving an introductory speech at a new workplace – we’ve all answered this one question, some time or the other: 

“Where do you see yourself, five years from now?“

Where do I see myself? I don’t know. All I want to focus on is the present. Live it. Embrace it. Enjoy it. And see where it takes me. I don’t want to think too much about the future and rather, live in the present, live in the moment. 

I don’t want to make five-year, ten-year plans. I just want to give the present my cent-percent, utmost and immediate attention. 

Planning ahead doesn’t always guarantee anything. 

We’ve all made plans, grand ones, only to realise how and why they never worked. Some people plan their career and some people plan their romantic lives. Some even make fancy plans to travel the world. Remember that Goa plan you’ve been making with your friends?

Do I need to tell you how rarely do these plans work out? Safe to say, life rarely goes as per our plans. Isn’t it better, then, to not tire ourselves making them?

You’ll fall in love when you’re meant to. You’ll earn that promotion when you’ve worked hard enough. You’ll buy a house when you’ve saved enough. Planning ahead won’t fructify anything. Instead of thinking about that fancy house you wish to own, ten years from now, how about you focus on working your ass off, so as to earn enough money to buy it? 

Unlike planning, working hard is a sure-shot way of achieving success. 

There’s a certain magic in uncertainty. 

When you don’t know what’s in for you, it’s unpredictably scary, yes, but it’s also filled with possibilities. Literally, anything can happen. And sometimes, we need to experience this magic.

Considering we live in times when everything is at the click of a button, we know what we’re in for. We can customize everything. Add filters to colour things our way. As a result, there’s little left to our imagination. We’ve got a certain control, a kind of hold on our present. And we aspire for a similar hold on our future. 

But won’t it be more fun if we just let it be? 

The future will happen when it has to happen. It’ll be as it’s meant to be. You can’t change much, can you? 

Let’s start living in the moment, all over again.

Remember as kids, how we’d focus on one thing at a time, truly immersing ourselves in it? If you think about it, we were much happier, back then. We didn’t care much about our life ahead. Hell, we didn’t even think about the next day. In that moment, all that mattered was what we were doing. We just wanted to have fun and give it our all. 

Why can’t we do that now? 

Not fret about what hasn’t even happened and focus on what’s happening instead?