Perspective of happiness can be so limited..
Last weekend I was travelling in Amsterdam, an incredibly charming city. While I was there, I happened to visit the Anne Frank house - popularly known as the museum with a soul and a story. It is the story of a little jewish girl, Anne Frank, who was holed up in hiding (from the Nazis) in this very house (now presented as a museum for tourists) for years before she was killed at the age of 15 during the World War 2. She and her family hid in this secret annexe for two whole years fearing their discovery every minute. It is a heart wrenching story about the trials and tribulations she went through during those years.
The museum has everything from excerpts of her diary, decorations on her wall, the kitchen they used and the hiding place to the black curtains.
This little girl lived there with her family and started writing a diary of daily events at the age of 13. She wrote about her life and many war related stories for two years. After she died, her father chose to publish the diary in to a book and reveal her story to the rest of the world.
The museum had interviews of surviving members, friends and family. This is one of the most intriguing, astonishing and yet excruciating stories I have come across.
After the museum visit, I felt compelled to go to the bookstore and buy her book. I wanted to know more!
The book is highly recommended - a testament to innocent prosecution!
But the one thing about her diary that really caught my attention wass that she was a very real girl (although she is often projected as this hero) who sometimes had more negative than positive things to say about people. She went through heartbreak, tension and struggle - but she still managed to find happiness in the smallest of things. She had to crave for the most basic things like sunlight and food, but she was also perfectly delighted about decorating the walls of her room with cut outs of old magazines.
It kind of makes you think about how relative the concept of happiness or unhappiness is. And our perspective of happiness can sometimes be so limited..
As I sat in on my last MBA class at ESADE yesterday (and probably the last class in my life), it was a strange bitter sweet feeling. Sweet cos it does feel like a bit of an achievement and bitter because it marks the end of 15 intense and exhilarating months! Just the thought of not knowing when I will see some people who have come to become very close friends is sad to say the very least!
But one thing is for sure, life will never be the same after ESADE and I mean that in a good way. When I got accepted to the MBA and readied myself to move to Barcelona, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. A year and a half later I know a lot of what I am today is because of this very experience and for that I will always be thankful for ESADE and the people who I crossed paths with here!
