Soul Mountain

I got this quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson memorized, “The happiness of a man in this life does not consist in the absence but in the mastery of his passions.” but contrary to many I find this quote more depressing than in the positive tone because in the society we live in, few get the opportunity to follow their dreams and passions as reason and judgment always stand in the way and wage a war against the former two which they win more often than not because they got the deadliest weapon in the world known as appetite as a part of their ammunition and losing in the war is the one thing that most of us, at least I cannot afford.
Everyone from Paulo Coelho to Robin Williams tells me to “Follow my dreams” but is it that easy? There are always two paths I can go by but in the long run will I get the opportunity to change the road I am on. Everyone who has talked to me knows that I don’t want to become an engineer and is quite easily convinced when I tell him about my poor grades, my pathetic academic record, my history of flunking in exams and a few other things which I won’t like to mention in here. It would be better if I was in the US where I could flip burgers and have a decent life while I moved on the road I wanted to be, but a college dropout in India has absolutely no value whatsoever. At least I have not met many people who dropped out of college and did something without getting a degree unless his parents were already multi millionaires.

Dream dies.
Passion burns out.
Reason jubilates.
Judgment gags.
A soul in the quoin ponders,
Why do I... exist?