Its okay to not follow your dreams you are not lost.

everyone i’m nikki mehra a fashion

blogger based out of new delhi

now i’m sure when you see a fashion

blogger stand here before you to give a

talk you’d expect me to give you a

textbook inspirational quote of how you

should believe in your dreams

how you should follow your dreams but

i’m going to tell you

to do the exact opposite of this

i’m going to tell you it is ok to not

follow your dreams

you know why because life is

not like the movies you’re not born with

a childhood dream

you’re not sure your entire life and you

don’t work with all your will and

passion in achieving that dream

dreams change life is more complicated

than that

you grow up to be a different person and

your dreams and goals are not

etched in stone and that’s okay

are you still best friends with your

nursery friends

if the answer to that question is what

i’m here to tell you

that it is okay if your dreams change

you can grow up to be a different person

and want to be something entirely

different

than what you imagined in your childhood

so next time someone tells you that

you’re lost

or you don’t know what you’re doing with

your life tell them this

i am not lost i am growing

and evolving and a part of this process

means that my dreams and goals are

evolving too

let me tell you how this fashion blogger

was born

now i have to admit fashion blogging

was not a career choice i had foreseen

as a kid

i mean sure i would paint my face with

my mom’s

makeup every now and then or i would

click 10

000 pictures on my dad’s old camera but

that wasn’t

that was at an age where i was

too young to care about career choices

surprisingly for my mom and dad i was a

really good student

i excelled in school and i had my entire

life planned out

i would take up economics as my career

and work towards consulting and i did

just that

i graduated with an honours degree in

economics from delhi university

and i loved the subject

then a graduate degree in economics

happened

and if i remember i think i was really

involved in the first year of my studies

i mean as involved as a student studying

linear algebra and real analysis can be

now i’m sure you know this course can be

really demanding

and really hard and it was the same for

so i really needed a creative outlet

and fashion was something i was always

interested in

back then blogging was very new in india

it was naturally developed so i did not

get into this

with any particular goal in mind

but to my surprise i started gaining a

significant following

of women of my age who were very

interested in seeing

how i helped them with wardrobe

solutions

and i have to be honest that feeling

that

first initial feeling of being famous

for an obscure college girl is

exhilarating

but i did not quit college this is not

one of those inspiring stories

i feel india may i see stories come to

nego miltiyan

may be because we’re a risk-averse

society

or maybe because we are brought up

[Music]

or maybe because we have an imaginary

timeline in our head

especially women 21 graduation

respectful stable career late 20s

and by 30 you have to have a kid

otherwise they say your biological clock

is ticking but i feel like that

holds back a lot of talent i mean i’m

sure

a lot of you are here because you love

economics

but i’m also sure that a lot of your a

lot of you here have

different interests probably those that

are not so well paying

your opportunity costs so to say and i

had my opportunity cost as well

so i did not quit college i decided to

stick around

much to the annoyance of my teachers by

this point

and i tried to juggle between blogging

and studies now

i have to say it was hard just

[Music]

look down upon karthiya it’s not a

cakewalk

my parents had to hear all sorts of

nasty things and that killed me inside

you know those meme relatives that you

have i have a couple of those

as well and my parents had to hear all

sorts of things

um they heard stuff like you don’t love

your daughter

you’re not responsible parents because

you’re letting her make such a bold

career choice

then of course was my partner who

had to break up with me because his

parents weren’t comfortable

with me putting my life out like that on

social media

i heard things like

the inevitable comparison my brother was

this really successful finance guy

doing his mba from i am in about

and here i was

somebody who had such a stable economics

career

and gave that up for something as bold

and unstable

as blogging my phone

even mom dad actually used to think that

i am doing nothing with my life

where in fact i was not managing one

but

i had multiple such friends around me

i remember i had my semester exams

coming up

and swarovski chose me as the indian

ambassador

it was a fancy trip i had to go to paris

for three days

shoot all over the city for swarovski’s

in-house magazine

and my macroeconomics paper was clashing

with this so i told my professor i had

fallen sick and i requested him to

postpone the exam

he agreed of course but he told me that

he will make a tougher exam

for me because he used to rewrite a

separate paper

which now that i think about it was a

very unnecessary condition

but i agreed to it nonetheless to make

matters worse my flights were scheduled

in such a way

would you directly airport say call it

janata to give my exam

so imagine on my way back from my first

international

work trip in the plane i was revising my

macroeconomic notes

while obviously being sleep deprived

what i’m trying to say is that it was

all worth it for me

so when everything was said and done i

realized

the lens to which i was willing to go to

for a career possibility that did not

even exist

a year ago and at the cost of a career

for which i had worked for my entire

life

this made me realize what i actually

wanted to do after college

my interests had changed and that is

what i would like to focus upon here

there is always so much talk about

chasing your dreams following your

dreams

but people never talk about the fact

that dreams can change too

they can and they will change it is a

part of you growing up

your goals are not etched in stone sure

there is a lot of some cost involved

i had spent 22 years of my life

working towards this goal and i was

really good at it i was the topper of my

batch

but i realized maybe i was even better

at doing something else and i loved it

more as well

so for those of you who are on a path

that you’re sure of

go for it economics needs people like

you

our global our domestic economies are

not at their best

and to be frank the 21st century is

really missing

it’s keens and freedmen but for those of

you who are not sure

listen to your inner voice

about what you love to do and if you

have not felt it

you will i assure you and when you do

do not ignore that voice you will be

scared

you will be skeptical people around you

will be

skeptical and people around you will

advise you against it

but do not listen to them i’m confident