Ambition: where’s your fate sealed?

by Anushka Nanayakkara

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When we were small each one of us dreamt of being someone, but how many of us were able to be who we always wanted to be? Different people with different ambitions around the globe, what can we say, isn’t it important to be what you want to be rather than be someone that you never would be comfortable being?

Let’s find out the successful dreamers who had made it through and who have failed in their ambition of becoming someone ordinary or extraordinary.

If you take the great lady, Indira Ghandi, as a little girl she used to get on to a chair and address all her dolls who were orderly seated on the mat. This was during the period when her father (Nehru) was in prison.

From the time of her childhood she had the passion to serve the people and the country. Her passion turned into an ambition and then became a reality when she became the Prime Minister. She even laid her life for the people of the country.

Miss World for the year 1994 and highest paid actress in Bollywood, Aishwarya Rai has always wanted to study medicine, but circumstances prevented her. Though she could not be what she wanted to be, now she has established herself as a professional model and actress globally. She became the first Indian actress to be on the jury of the Cannes International Film Festival.

According to Bollywood news in 2004, Aishwarya became the first Indian actress to have her own statue at London’s Madame Tussauds museum. Once she told the media “I always knew I would be successful, so there was no element of surprise”. This proves that some people do not get lost or uncomfortable settling for another career.

Dilrukshika Wimalarathna who is professionally a journalist has been more talented in drawing than writing from childhood. She said that, according to her mother, at the age of three, she had drawn a bride with tears flowing from her eyes.

“I used to make stories and tell my friends who eagerly gathered around to listen. When I was in the montessori, I used to make caves in jungles with people, out of clay, while other kids made animals and flowers. At that time we didn’t even have television, it was all my imaginations.

When I was in grade four, I wrote a positive short story and my teacher admired it a lot. She even blessed and inspired me to become a writer. Though I did design and write for her own fake news paper from young days and showed it to neighbours, I never dreamt of becoming a writer.

After I changed my school, things changed a lot and I was pushed to do Bio Science for A/L. It was the most miserable period in my life, because everyone wanted me to become a doctor. I remember when I passed the classes where they taught literature, I took very slow steps because I enjoyed listening to what was going on there.

I studied something which I didn’t enjoy at all and both times I sat for the exam I flunked. But I didn’t give up, for the third time I decided to shift to arts subjects, where I felt as if I have reached my destination. I felt as if I was learning something which I knew already.

With flying colours I entered the University of Kelaniya, then only did I realise that I have wasted two years of my life. Somewhere inside my mind I wanted to become a lawyer but fate carried me here where I have established myself as a writer for many years now.

I had a cousin who worked for a paper and my mother heard the conversation we had, when I told him that I’m interested in becoming a journalist, but never knew that I would be greatly satisfied in this profession. I think it was meant to be”.

Being ambitious doesn’t mean being pushy and offensive to others, nor does it mean that you have to trample on others in order to reach your goal, throughout there are people who act that way. To be ambitious and reach your goals you need to know what they are, and your talents and resources.

I have come across many people who are stressed because they had failed to reach their ambition. Though they have settled in some other profession, a building passion towards that was missing.

At the end they feel that they are holding an incomplete personality in society. I think we all are blessed with some talent, it is a matter of finding what we are good at. Then it would be a matter of finding resources to make your ambition a reality.