Once we secured admission into university in Singapore, the final step involved receiving the IPA letter – a temporary stand in from the immigration authority for a student visa. This was July 2006 and I was impatiently waiting for the IPA letter to show up in time for the scheduled departure. It didn’t.
I was upset. I kicked up a fuss. I was going a couple of days later and missing out. It was the high and low that accompanied excitement. The high of traveling to a new place for a new life with friends had just crashed. I did get there a couple of days later and of course, I didn’t miss anything of consequence. In every way, the two day delay didn’t make a difference. It had just messed with the plans in my mind.
Such delays are just part and parcel of life. We make many plans. Some just don’t work. Some work with delays. Some work on time and some happen sooner than expected. We’d like them to happen exactly as per our plan, of course, but then life happens.
My learning is that these delays and advancements don’t matter in the big scheme of things. I described the effects of a mere 2 day delay but have since faced many others. Of late, I’ve been dealing with plans delayed or advanced by up to a year! And you know what? Things work out just fine.
Don’t take the script in your head too seriously. Plan and prepare but also be ready to improvize. The only certainty is that things will change; your happiness with the change is never guaranteed. But then again, you don’t know when a good day is a good day..
A Learning a Day 