Sukhpaljit Kaur shares about why it’s important to remain patient.
In high school, I had my whole future mapped out: law school, a courtroom, a title. But when I got to college, my family gently steered me elsewhere; and when I looked into the numbers myself, computer science seemed like the safer bet.
So, I ended up in a computer science classroom instead. In my third semester, I decided to chase that old dream again. So, I threw myself into job hunting — applying everywhere, calling offices, following up, waiting. Weeks of silence wore on me. I’d done everything ‘right,’ and still, nothing moved.
Around then, my mother told me a story about Goddess Parvati and a poor beggar. She asked Lord Shiva why he wouldn’t help someone suffering so much. Shiva said circumstances are shaped by karma, and that placing wealth before someone doesn’t guarantee they’ll receive it. To prove it, he placed a golden brick in the beggar’s path. But the beggar, wondering how hard life would be if he went blind, closed his eyes to test himself, and walked right past the gold. I didn’t understand yet that I was the beggar too — walking past my own gold brick every week, just not ready to see it.
Not long after, I went to Gurdwara Sahib – a spiritual sanctuary and community center – with my family, and they introduced me to an attorney. We spoke for a few minutes. By Monday, he’d asked me into his office, and I was hired. All those weeks, the silence hadn’t meant nothing was coming. It meant the conditions weren’t right yet. When they finally were, I didn’t have to chase the gold brick at all.
It found me in a temple, through a conversation I never planned. I think about that every time I get impatient with my own life. I don’t think I was lost during those years of waiting. I think I was just early, standing in front of something that hadn’t unfolded yet. With a Perspective, I am Sukhpaljit Kaur.
Sukhpaljit Kaur is pursuing a Bachelors degree in Computer Science at Cal State University, East Bay.