A couple of years ago, a friend, who was some kind of a senior project manager in a tier 2 Indian IT company drawing a couple of lakhs a months, called to announce that (his wife) has got a PR to Canada and they would be shifting there soon and wanted to say goodbye.

Well, I obviously thought he landed some kind of job there (quite the exceptional guy) and he would surely step up on his career. So I asked him what company he was joining. He blankly said, "Dude. I am just winging it, won't a any job or shit. Will drive a cab probably".

I was totally confused. "So, you are throwing away your (successful) career because you got a PR? What happened to your entire life? You were working to build a career your entire life, right? But why do you leave such a cushy job here for an uncertain life in a strange country?

What he told me then hit me hard. "It does not matter. Career and all is subjective, on how long it lasts and what it earns for you. For me, today it is working out but in around 5 years I will be 40 and it will be over. So this move is kind of an insurance."

"Ultimately it only matters how you live. And most of my friends and batchmates have already left. Doesn't make any sense for me to stay". I still couldn't understand. I was still stuck on the career part. That was all that mattered, right, what you had to show for yourself?

Apparently it did not. Over the many years that followed (I know I said couple of years, but make that 5-8 years ago) I saw a steady stream of people from VPs to everybody else emigrating with PR to various countries all forfeiting their careers they had built so far.

That was when I realised nothing of anything matters unless we are able to live a life of peace and certainty. That is where I faltered. I believed there would be certainty, that the powers that are would enable it. I didn't realise the powers intentions were different.

Anyway, it is around 345 in the morning and so gotta say it. At the end of the day, it is all for yourself. I was a fool for believing the Universe works for my benefit and that things would get better linearly. I was an idiot for not seeing things for what they are.

And in the end, you worked for some for a bit, and you trade it in for something else for the sale of surviving when you know your gig is up. That is the secret, to survive, like what Capt. Jack Sparrow tells Capt. Teague.
Survive. That is all that matters.