The best piece of advice that changed my perspective

It was a normal day at work, I was working as a cadet onboard a cargo vessel and my chief officer was accompanying me on my scheduled navigational watch, we were in the middle of the ocean and the weather was good, there wasn’t much work at the time so we were just keeping our watch and enjoying the temporary calm weather; suddenly a thought struck my head and I asked my chief officer if he would like his kids to work at sea?

To which he replied, “Well I won’t push them for this life... it should be their decision to do whatever they want to do in their life.”

I don’t know why I asked that question out of nowhere but after pondering upon my question, I guess he understood my dilemma and that I was indirectly trying to ask him if he considered his life good and worth it.

And so, he continued, “I know this life is difficult and honestly, I hate this ship and I hate being away from my children, my family and friends, but I do respect my job. I know when I’m here, I’m responsible for this ship and the duties that I have to perform every day here feed my family and allow me to give them and myself a good life.”

There was a huge life lesson and it always stayed with me since.

One might say that if hates it so much why doesn’t he quit and do something else and be happy, but the thing is that person has dedicated more than a decade of his life doing that job and you can’t continue that long without passion, you might feel drained at times and start disliking the negatives that come with any profession at all, but you still have to overcome those challenges and continue performing your duties not necessarily because you love to but sometimes also because you have to.

- Reshu Kumar

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Reshu Kumar

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