I begin writing my first blog of 2018.  I have written many since 2014, but this year got me going. Many changes happened in life. I left my job from the most powerful conglomerate in Europe, Bosch – Invented For Life, they say, to concentrate more on my teaching career and concentrating on my own ventures of blogging, translations and teaching. It was a good decision I reckon my force with because the financial stability has remained the same, but the peace of mind has increased manifold. As me and my hubby took the next step towards planning our family and charting out when and how, I realized becoming a mother needed strength and the power to take risks, and so bidding good bye to Bangalore I moved to Panipat and kept hovering between Panipat and Pune in search of better avenues and to set up a world of my own.

Travelling and blogging was one of them. Working for close to four years in India and Germany, I decided that I had saved enough to embark on a journey and turn travelling and blogging into more than a hobby. It did work out after I took to blogging and travelling seriously, and today my blog has more than 10000 views each month with a whooping 9000 likes on my Facebook Page related to Travel named #Travel Diaries With Love under the username #ruchaflora. That is what set me apart, all that it demanded was regularity and dedication. But someone was true, planning a family, being on your own, the support of your husband and the most of all starting education again, needed a lot of thinking and perseverance to plan life right. I had always been able to set strings straight uptill now thanks to the support of my parents and husband, you need it trust me!…but this time it was different. I had to carve out a niche and a name in an industry and theme where already so many flourishing bloggers and teaching institutes were thriving even before time at hand(said sarcastically). I had to take admission in college and make sure I studied in my spare time and kept my hobbies and creativity intact.

I started a small venture 5 years ago where I completed freelancing language assignments and taught students and corporate alike, I am happy that #FloraLanguageSolutions has taken its wings in the right direction and giving me satisfactory results. I never aimed at doing something that was above expectations. I aimed at a simple life that gave me enough to earn my bread and butter, shop when need be and most of all travel the world, happy to believe that dreams do come true and everything is going in the right direction. With the right amount of translation assignments and an adequate number of students to teach, I got busy planning my days and classes, not to forget the school!…DPS….it provided such a good crowd to teach and make many more people the kind of language lover like I am. DPS was a temporary decision but the students it got, increased my confidence and experience to teach as well as take those further steps over planning out classes and terms even for Flora Language Solutions.

Next came the blogging, travelling never stopped, and never will, just the frequency has reduced due to added responsibilities and the number of holidays. Travel Diaries With Love took shape in 2017 after my blogs on ruchaflora.wordpress.com and Tripoto gave me a good amount of viewership and even some sponsors who gave me points for booking hotels and trips which I could use as cash. This is one super – fantastic way by which you can  earn from your blogging and save on flights and hotels you book. Tripoto also has a policy of giving you some free trips if your blogs are featured in the top ten on their website. All this worked in a well woven manner. Travel was one thing that taught me my capability and how much it was possible for me to push my limits and dream better. Nature Walkers came later and I am thankful to them for making my writing familiar to the Bangalore crowd and giving me public presence on their social media handles.

So, 2018 began on a very promising note with lots of changes and new additions to life. There were fresher avenues and fields that needed attention. Sometimes you realise that you are much more than a corporate job. It is always worth taking a risk and seeing what life has in store for you as long as you are not giving up on your independence and sticking to being confident. Even if it means lesser ambitions but greater stability and peace of mind, then the dice is worth being rolled and taking the risk. A caterpillar always needs that metamorphosis to turn into a butterfly, if that process is stopped we morons living on planet earth would be nothing short of brainless insects who just lay eggs and then die a natural death after they reproduce. A man is meant to take risks, abide by them and see if the dice gets rolled in your destiny as per your wish. Your only constant will be change and that happened.

This might seem like a lot of philosophy coming from a 25 year old woman who speaks of planning a family and venturing out into the wild on your own. But trust me there is no right or wrong time, it is only when your heart desires and your dreams cannot let you sleep, that is the time when you should take any step that prevailed. Any decision and activity that seemed unreachable will come to you within that testing time, when you work your ways towards your vision. My motivation came through travel and I am happy I took it. Find yours and never let it go!

Stick to my blog for an upcoming travel adventure and itinerary.

Till then signing off for next time!

Rucha Sudhir Khot