I have this theory.
I think that between what we want and what we have, there is always a gap.
Most people see this gap as a source of grief, frustration, anger, or disappointment. They spend their lives trying to close it as quickly as possible. They see it as proof that life is not going according to plan.
But I think this gap is actually where the romance of life lives.
When we are young, we make plans. We create bucket lists. We imagine the places we will go, the people we will meet, the things we will achieve, and the life we will build.
Then life happens.
It takes us in directions we never imagined. It leads us to places we never planned to visit. It introduces us to people who change us. It breaks some dreams and quietly replaces them with others.
Things rarely happen the way we planned them.
And yet, when we look back, those unexpected turns often become the most beautiful parts of our story.
I think life wants us to romanticize it.
Not by being naive.
Not by pretending everything is perfect.
Not by closing our eyes and simply letting things happen.
But by opening our eyes wider to the beauty, meaning, and possibilities hidden within the journey itself.
Because when we get everything we want immediately, we rarely savor it. We adapt to it. We get used to it. We move on to wanting something else.
But when there is distance between where we are and where we wish to be, something extraordinary happens.
In that space, we grow.
We create.
We discover.
We learn things we never intended to learn. We uncover parts of ourselves we never knew existed. We meet people we would never have met otherwise. We collect stories, memories, lessons, heartbreaks, joys, and moments that were never on our original list.
Slowly, that distance begins to fill itself.
Love fills the gap.
Meaning fills the gap.
Wonder fills the gap.
Life fills the gap.
And one day, when we look back, we realize that life was never just about the destination. It was about the beautiful mosaic created by everything that filled the space between where we started and where we arrived.
Perhaps that is what life asks of us.
Not merely to achieve, but to savor.
Not merely to arrive, but to appreciate the distance between departure and arrival.
Maybe the gap is not a mistake.
Maybe the gap is where the magic happens.
Because if there were no gap, there would be no place for wonder to bloom.
— Jitesh Khanna
