Against All Odds

We spend our lives trying to balance an invisible equation

going with the flow,

submitting to unspoken norms,

obedient to rules we never consciously chose.

Our minds and hearts grow familiar with what religion, society, and history have conditioned us to accept.

Slowly, their beliefs become our reflexes.

We measure every action, ensuring it aligns perfectly with these silent terms and conditions.

Because our actions are judged, recorded, and stitched into an identity we are expected to wear.

Along the way, we lean toward what benefits us materially

what looks good in front of the world,

what pleases the eyes,

what offers comfort and gratification to the body—

often at the cost of what truly feeds the soul.

We learn to avoid the uncomfortable.

We sideline difficult conversations,

carry quiet trust issues with our own selves,

and remain uncertain of our own emotions,

choosing certainty in approval over honesty within.

Yet who we truly become is often decided long before choice enters the room.

By birth.

By fear.

By the quiet warning against stepping outside the lines drawn by religion, society, and inherited identity.

Rarely do we pause to ask—

Who am I without this conditioning?

What would my mind think, my heart feel, my soul choose,

if they were shaped by courage instead of conformity?

Most of us have never truly tried to find ourselves on our own.

To mould our mind, heart, and soul—

free from the gravity of external forces.

And perhaps that is the greatest odds we have never dared to face.

~Sumita