The Year in Review.

[Abhi Kantamneni]

 I may have already admitted this earlier, but around the same time last year I was languishing deep inside an existential void where 'out' appeared to be the only way out but a year later, nothing appears to have changed and yet everything has.

Last time around as the date for my PhD Qualification Exams drew near, I found myself physically unable to pick up my material and study simply because I could not care less and yet this year, as I sometimes wonder about what would happen to my dreams and aspirations if I were to not clear the same exams, I find myself unconcerned and worry free.

Last time around I frankly avoided contemplating my career plans, mostly because  every possibility appeared to lead to a drab and meaningless existence, but now as I wonder about my life and future I find myself not bothering too much about what I precisely did for a living, just as long as I get to spend my life with the one I love.

Nothing provides a better explanation for this dichotomy than this picture does.

  I can only tell you that as you look at the image in times of strife, you probably only ever see a solitary duck with its mouth slightly agape, and irrespective how hard you peer or how much someone else tries to get you to see otherwise, The Duck is all you can and will see till someday something imperceptible clicks in your mind, and from then onwards try as you might you can never unsee The Rabbit with oddly rigid ears.

 The image has remained the same throughout and yet when things fall into place,it acquires a new meaning and I truly and honestly believe eventually so will your life, and perhaps that day you will be around to help someone else see The Rabbit.

 

 

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

My comment remains the same as it did in January.  Do work that you love; everything else will fall into place.

[Angela]

It is good to read of a positive perspective.  Well written and engaging.

[Toby Tucker Hecht]

About your qualifying exam--don't think of it as the entrance to your career or validating your superior intelligence.  I found it useful to think of the field of study you will be spending your life examining and figure out if THAT joy is worth it.  For me, it was.

[Teresa]

I agree.  My life hasn't changed but I have.  I saw that damn duck out of the corner of my eye for the longest time, then he was in my face with half his bill up my nose.  Now it's all rabbit.  When you've moved from one place to the other this makes so much sense.  (I used to think of feeling positive or depressed as photographs beside their negatives.  Same image, different presentation). 

Long live the rabbit.

[Mike Handley]

I'm not convinced state of mind has anything to do with which animal one sees. No strife whatsoever here, but I saw only the duck until you revealed the rabbit. Or, actually, it occurred to me that it could be a sideways scrotum beside a forked penis (seeing as how "out" could be interpreted as preceding "of the closet"). Still, I do think the drawing is a most excellent illustration for dichotomy. Perhaps sentence five might be better if you'd said, "as I look?"

[Edward Dean]

You take us on a very tough emotional journey Abhi.

# 6 is a dynamite connection back to selflessness. Well done.