Hi Rewa,

It sounds like there is a lot of pressure keeping you from leaving. Society, your parents, your guru, your promise.

Let’s start unpacking these. Promises can be broken, it’s ok. People will be upset, perhaps for a while, but they will get over it. At the end of the day, people who care about you just want to see you happy. Maybe they’re just afraid you’ll run off to some destructive lifestyle. Focus on what you’d rather be doing. Have you given it thought? Where do you want to work or what do you want to learn? They might feel more at ease with your choice if they know what you really want to do. This goes for you too. Continue to be completely honest with yourself and what you want. Don’t back down, and just settle to be a nun, so that you avoid upsetting others, and to avoid breaking a promise. And don’t be so hard on yourself for making a promise like that. People make lifelong promises all the time (marriage, for example). But people change over time, right? We develop different ideas, desires, outlooks on things slowly over time. We’re bound to go retract some things we’ve said in the past, break some long term promises.

Stay strong, focus on what you really want to do with your life, and communicate open and honestly with your parents, your guru, and yourself. This is YOUR life where YOU get to choose what’s best for YOU.

: )