We often write about the trips we complete. But this is about the ones we decide to walk away from.

The Story

It was a soft, rainy evening in Mumbai, and Mira sat by the window.

The steady rhythm of raindrops created a calm backdrop and as the world outside blurred gently, it invited the quiet questions she’d been holding inside.

So…

Should we outlast something — or walk away when it no longer feels right, or healthy?

Why should we leave — jobs, relationships, cities? Even the parts of ourselves that tried too hard and for too long, to make it work.

Often, we don’t walk away just because we’ve found something better.

We leave because we can’t keep letting others decide if we’re doing okay. If we’re strong, successful, worthy — or simply good enough to stay.

But that’s not how it starts..

At first, we tell ourselves we’ll outlast it.

That if we wait just a little longer, something will shift.

Because that’s how it’s supposed to happen, right?

Hope becomes the reason to stay.

But sometimes, hope is a trap.

Because when you’re constantly enduring, you don’t always see the quiet damage it’s doing.

Not until the weariness creeps into your mornings.

Not until your confidence feels distant.

Not until joy starts to feel like a memory rather than a possibility.

You get used to surviving —

and forget what it feels like to simply live.

The world won’t always notice.

Rather it would want you to stay-

Because they like seeing you every day.

Because they depend on your calm, your presence.

Maybe even need you to stay — because your staying shields them.

A quiet buffer from the discomfort they don’t want to face.

And it’s not their fault.

That’s just what they know:

That quiet suffering is strength. That endurance equals success.

But there comes a time when staying becomes a slow forgetting of who you are.

So I chose to walk.

Not just away from a place, a person — but back to myself.

Not because I could not stay but because I chose not to.

Because, I finally saw that hope alone isn’t enough, if it costs you your whole self.

Because it’s not worth it.

Because I am good.

And I realized,

leaving wasn’t the hard part.

Staying had been.

And in that choice — to leave or to stay, lies the courage to reclaim who you truly are, to open the door to new possibilities and happiness.

So what about you — is there something you’re still outlasting? Or you can cancel that trip and return to yourself.