Maverick: “an unorthodox or independent-minded person.”

***The above definition was derived from Oxford Languages via Google.

I watched Top Gun: Maverick in the theater on Wednesday night.

Firstly, I have officially dubbed Tom Cruise sexiest man alive second only to mera dil ki dhadakan, the one and only, Jagapathi. He is also my second favorite actor in the world.

Without giving away any spoilers for those of you who haven’t seen the movie and plan to, there’s a dialogue I like:

When it comes to thinking and doing, there are two extremes. One: impulsivity. Two: overthinking. Both are useless. But Mav wasn’t talking about impulsivity. Instinct is different. It’s trusting that you are trained enough, intelligent enough, creative enough to figure out the solution because you’ve already thought it through before. This doesn’t just work for navy pilots. It works for everyone and practically everything.

For me, it’s my writing.

Wondering too much about whether or not I have enough to say, I’ll admit, has been one of the other reasons I haven’t written as much as of late.

Except writing isn’t always something that requires pre-planning. At least, not for me.

I type a word, then two, a sentence, a paragraph and let each idea lead me to the next. That’s how I’ve developed some of my best stories. Jumping in blind. In fact, it’s how I’ve made some of my best decisions. Going with that gut feeling. That’s how I chose my college, my career path. That’s how I decided to start this blog.

The idea formed in my head and I worded it out loud the first time with my father in fact: “Daddy, I was thinking of starting a blog called MidnightMochaLatte.” And he told me to just do it.

And I just did.

No discussions. No plans. Just hit the start button and see what happens.

And it turned out pretty fantastic, if I do say so myself. It’s one of the most fun things I get to do. I suppose that’s another thing I need to remember: it’s supposed to be fun. Yeah, sure, it’s a way to get my name out there, a résumé builder, an ad forum for my other creative works. But it’s not work. It was never supposed to be considered work no matter how much professional promotion it gives me.

I often like quoting Confucius when people look at me aghast when I say I all the work I do take on: A man who does what he loves never works a day. And of course, as always “man” referred to “all humans” not just the “male homo sapiens”.

The second you start to think of something you love as an obligation, a task, it stops being as lovely to do. As fun. As desirable. Because we think too much about the outcomes, about the gains we’ll get. We think about résumé builders, pay checks, volunteering hours, and rarely attained 4.0 GPAs that say nothing about who we are as people. We lose sight of the thrill of building a robot (though it may potentially take over the world but that’s neither here nor there). We lose sight of the contentment that comes with covering the world’s canvasses with colors. We lose sight of the way our heart thumps every time we take a bow or cross a finish line. Because we’re too focused on the prizes that come after.

And people will immediately begin to yell that I’m only saying this because I don’t need to work hard for grades and money and I don’t know their value. Those people are idiots who know nothing about me. I do know their value. I just value happiness more.

To be honest, I think everyone does.

The difference is that some people are confident or determined enough to pursue their passions and others aren’t. It’s really that simple. And then, there are the handful of people whose passion is making money so they don’t really care what job they do as long as they get those six figures but that’s another situation altogether. (Ah, materialism. That’ll be a long conversation for another time.)

I know – it’s one of those concepts that’s globally thought of as easier said than done. But is it really?

I don’t think it is. I think it’s actually quite simple. You make a choice, go with your gut, do without thinking.

Guess that makes me a maverick too.