My all time inspiration - My Father!

Housing.com had been so generous to bloggers like me, that they had forced us to think of almost all the moments when we have experienced the inspiration or optimism through a closed one. Now they have forced me to look back a whole lot of years ago, when I was having my first board exam and the evening I had spent talking to my father. I can’t exactly remember the words quote-unquote, what he had said that day but I still remember the goose bumps I was having that evening. It is truly said that words don’t inspire but the company does.

I was a boy then and I don’t think I have to tell what goes inside a boy when he knows that from tomorrow he will have to give the best he had learnt through all these years. The exams which were about to start will guide his whole career and this particular exam, for which he had to visit a new school will decide his capability and how fierce he is. To be very frank, at that moment I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to study but whenever I sat to study, I felt as if all those things which I had learnt would go outside my head. I couldn’t move around because I was scared that if I move around much and divert my mind into all the other things that are going around me, I will forget my lessons and my exams would go bad.

There is one bad tendency I have that whenever I feel tensed I start sweating a lot and I fumble a lot. I do not feel hungry. That day was one such day in my life. I wanted to hide that from my parents but my father, being a father, understood what was going on inside my head. He sat with me and proposed a game of chess. I have always been good at chess and my father had always been my inspiration while playing chess. I always wanted to be as best as my father in the game and he knew that I can never say no to a game of chess.

After lunch, when we sat for a round of chess, I was still very tensed. My father took white and I took black. He started the game and I continued. The me, who used to take much time before a shot was hurrying things up and panicking at every step forward. My father looked at me, held my gaze and said ‘Son, be calm! Panicking would never solve anything and stuff would only go haywire. Go slow, take your time and free your mind of everything else, focus only on the game. Patience is the key. You know it all, you just need to feel that you know it and you’ll have it’ I didn’t know what magic those words did to me but then I took a deep breath and played the game with the 100% I could give.

Believe it or not, it was that day, the very first time in my life that I won the match and that too with a check-mate. Till date, I don’t believe if my father actually lost the match or was it intentional but all I remember is the after match winning hug that he gave me and told me ‘This was an exam, my child. Tomorrow, just think about today and give your best. Nothing is tough. Patience and calmness are the only things you would need’ I had goose bumps then. My boards went awesome and I went on to score 88% in it. I guess, it was the motivation that I needed. Near and dear ones surely know how to boost you up and show you the power of positivity. I’ll cherish that day forever!

Note: This is a part of https://housing.com/.