LIM College

by Sonal Agarwal

The quote that has inspired me the most and continues to inspire me every day is “Prove them wrong.” Three words, with the most powerful message ever.

“Them” is everyone around you who doubted you. Everyone who had second thoughts about your caliber. Everyone who judged you for not doing things their way or must I say, the “traditional” way.

Not that I care, not that you should care, but we live in a society where we are constantly bothered by people who seem born to drag you down. So, what could keep them quiet? Proving them wrong.

Let me tell you a short story. It’s my story, no suspense. All I wanted to do was to enroll myself in a good, reputable grad school. At the time, I had no major career goals then, I was just going with the flow.

Soon, I was a student at one of the country’s top business schools, studying economics. In less than four months, I knew I was in the wrong place. Yes, it took me four months, but I guess it’s better late than never.

So what I do next? I called my Dad to let him know that I was coming back home. And so, I went home. That’s when it started.

Everyday my mom would get phone calls from my “worried” relatives. These were people I had never heard of before, showing their concern, making her feel like she gave birth to an extremely useless child, and that she should pray to God to put some sense back to my head. Some even suggested to her that I should be married off because I wasn’t the “career oriented” type. Can you believe it?! Now what exactly is a career oriented type? And even if I knew, why did they care so much about my life!

Luckily, my parents are awesome. They supported me throughout. Phones would ring all day, but I made it a point to not get affected by any of this. I continued researching different career options, and finally found the perfect course description at LIM that fit with what I wanted to do in life.

After six months of dealing annoying people, and working on making the right career choice, I received an acceptance letter from the graduate studies center of one of the country’s top fashion institutions...LIM! That day, the phones stopped ringing. Now I was the one making calls.

I proved them wrong. Not that they mattered to me enough that I cared to prove anything to them, but it made me feel good about myself. That incident made me so strong that until today, I maintain the same attitude. And now I know what people like them hate the most. To be proved wrong.

We’re all going to face situations like these in life. What we must know is that it’s just a phase, and it shall pass. All you need to do is keep faith, believe in yourself and not let anything or anyone affect you. If ever in doubt, ask yourself “does this person matter to me at all?” The answer will always be no. You know why? Because people who matter will never be the ones making you feel the need to prove anything to.

Sometimes all you need to do is to prove “them” wrong to prove “you” right.