Skip to main content

Profound Meditation Through Password Hints



typography break while applying. lyrics from Weight of Living II by Bastille
Self-reflection. It's something we as a people tend to save for later. Saved for the gaps in the rat race that is school and career. Saved for the comma in the sentence, the opportunity to breathe, granted once every few years. Saved for the pauses while we wait anxiously for life to press play again.

As Cory mentioned, half-birthdays are a good point to reflect on the road you're on, as you keep on running, but what about those unintended stabs of self reflection we've all seen dozens of times? Those questions that probe on our common experiences as humans, but also make you think about your life journey and how you got to here. That's right, the friendly little password reminder!

Since I am on the job hunt, I have been making account after account on different employer websites, and I am usually in such a hurry to just get on and submit the cover letter I spent the last hour perfecting, that I have mastered my username and password-making skills. But then, this screen will often stop me dead in my tracks. "What was the street you lived on when you were 5?" "Who was your favorite childhood friend?" "What was the name of your favorite teacher?"

 These simple, inocuous questions make me think, sometimes really introspectively, about how luck, hard work, people, and opportunities have made me who I am today. They also make me thankful for every path I have been lead down because though they may not have seemed worthwhile at the time, they have all taught me valuable lessons and helped me in unforeseen ways.

When I read, "In which city was your first job?" my brain whirrs, running this inner-monologue.  Does that mean the first-ever time I filled out a W-2? That would be blogging for The84, an anti-smoking campaign for teenagers back when I was in high school, getting paid $18 a post. The 84 was based in Boston, but my title was MetroWest Blogger, so do I say my hometown? But then again, I hosted events for the organization in Worcester, so maybe there? Should I just go with a job from USC?

And the freeing aspect of these answers being for my eyes only makes the whole inadvertent reflection even more worthwhile even if I end up selecting a more no-frills straight-fact question/answer combo like "Where were you born?"

My favorite of these password reminders are those that ask about your  "favorites". My preferences change a lot, and they change over time. So asking me who my "favorite childhood friend" confounds me because sometimes it is who I am still in contact with today, sometimes I am nostalgic and think back to people I miss and how life took us in different directions. As wishy-washy as it sounds, I really do NOT have one favorite!

So the next time you face that password reminder question, think of the multitude in your answers. Think of the roads not taken, and how lucky you were to travel the road leading you to this moment.

Take that rare breath to just take inventory and appreciate the serendipity of life.

peace, love, sunshine. x
maithreyi :)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Florida 2012 Day I: St. Augustine!

I've decided to post my blogs about my family vacation to Florida from 8/15 to 8/20. Here's the first one: August 15th, our day in St. Augustine! (These are directly transcribed from my written diary on my iPad.) "We arrived in Florida at 3 am this morning, and slept til 9, had coffee by the pool, went swimming, showered, ate pav bhaji, then got ready to head to St. Augustine!" "St Augustine is the cutest, most picturesque little historic city. I definitely have a new city to love! We went to the Castillo de San Marcos , the oldest fort in the United States, had a ranger-led history lesson, and then ate a fantastic lunch at Acapulco  Authentic Mexican Restaurant. We then got ice cream from Fudge Buckets & Hyppos . I had a popsicle from Hyppos made with fresh cantaloupe and black pepper: spicy, delicious, and nutritious! We bought groceries since we are staying in a suite, and then bought umbrellas because Florida decided to monsoon on us. We wai...

I'm not standing still, I'm lying in WAIT.

The lyrics of "Wait for It" always have me belting at the top of my lungs at any moment I hear them: in the shower, in the car, in my house when I am chilling out and trying to relax by listening to "Hamilton"... This line in particular: "I am inimitable, I am a original... I'm not falling behind or running late, I'm not standing still, I'm lying in WAIT." stands out to me because at 25, and living in 2017 with all the social media highlight reels of my friends' lives, I constantly need to remind myself that life is a marathon, and I am at a completely different point of it than my peers -- and comparing them is doing me no favors and not necessary. I am an ORIGINAL. And I am setting the chess pieces of my life into motion, but I also have to yield final control to the universe. The steps I have taken: pursuing courses in Data Science and Public Speaking, applying to graduate school, making connections both in my company and in the Boston...

hyderabadi healing

You know that first-day-clean-slate-feeling every new school year as a kid? That feeling that no matter what is going to happen, you will have your friends, you will have lunch to look forward to, and new teachers and new adventures to be had during recess. The familiar routine, revived and renewed. I feel that when I see this empty page on my screen. Waiting for my thoughts. Waiting for my meandering views on whatever comes my way. I can't really explain the calm that envelopes me as I first dip my fingers in, checking the temperature of the water before diving deep. Deep into the terrifying abyss that sometimes is my mind. It feels so good to want to write again. These past few months, I had been feeling the absence of sense. That apathy is more crippling than anything. Instead of every sensory feeling translated into swarths of words, like birds that yearn for release, they beat against me like a rock-- I was unwavering, unrelenting. Paralyzed. Suddenly, I felt passive rath...