Beneath Your Feet

HAD I the heavens' embroidered cloths,

Enwrought with the golden and silver light,

The blue and the dim and the dark cloths

Of night and light and half-light,

I would spread the cloths under your feet

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;

I have spread my dreams beneath your feet;

Tread softly because you tread on my dreams...

-William Butler Yeats

One year ago today I was preparing to send admissions essays and recommendation letters to various MBA programs. It never happened. I dropped it all and changed course to embark on a different path. It was not easy, especially when facing so much resistance from people around me -- even from those closest to me. We all have an opinion on how others should conduct their lives. But learning to yield and embrace the dreams of others may be the better way. In fact, I'll put it a bit more honestly: it is the better way.

I'm happy to report that everyone has since jumped on the new psychology bandwagon. Surprise surprise.

About a week ago I enrolled into a psychology Master's program here at Harvard. I have never been more satisfied with my career decisions. I feel it within, as corny as it may sound, an alignment of my thoughts and feelings... with my actions. The shedding of external pressure and influence is sweet and real. It feels real, if you know what I mean. I have hundreds of pages of reading and already writing papers within the first week of class. I have narrowed down a thesis topic for the Master's thesis next year -- and I'm doing all of this with an unprecedented degree of zest and fascination I hadn't experienced in my undergraduate years. Sure, income won't be anywhere near as high as it would have been had I attained an MBA. But you know what, it makes absolutely no difference to me at all. Not anymore... and that's liberating.

And then, to think that I could be so lucky as to have this opportunity at all... to attend school... to not live in need... to have a choice... to be able to redirect the external circumstances of my life... is humbling. Existence is the real gift - and we all have that. All of this is just a bonus that I'm trying to tweak the best I can. Maybe you can too.

Posts may be fewer and farther between, strictly as a consequence of my new workload. I'll be happy to share the development of the thesis topic in the coming months. Now I'm cooking with real fire.

Thanks for reading, and please, as cliché as this sounds, go out there and follow your dreams.
I can assure you that we will all thank you for it in the end.