Thank you! Thank you! Thank you Rhonda Byrne! You have changed the meaning of life for me and my family! I have received so many magnificent outcomes after reading The Secret and The Magic. I want to share a few magical events that left me starstruck!

Last year I finished my board exams and decided to take a gap year before college. I wanted to try getting into med school and decided to prepare for the exams during that year. There was a small chance that I would get in with the scores from my high school secondary exams but we decided to not wait for the results to make any decisions. I began to read ‘The Magic’ during that period. I bought it in the 9th grade but never got past 20 pages or so. This time I really put my mind to finishing all the 28 practices and found peace, consistent joy and direction in life.

After 2 months we received a call letter for allotment to med schools in the state. It seemed that my scores were good enough to get into med school that very year itself. I did not want it however. I had bigger plans and preparations to study abroad. But I went to the allotment session anyway with my dad. We had very few choices for my score and he decided on the only good college on the list which also happened to be 12 hours away from my hometown. All my life I had never found friends better suited for me than my mom and sister. Now I had to leave them for a period of 5 and a half years. I was devastated but I looked up the college on the internet and the website said that the kitchens were fully mechanized and there was mechanized laundry systems. That got me a tad bit excited because that was unlike other colleges I had heard about. People in college were always complaining about bad food and having to hand wash their clothes.

Me and my dad went over there and found that everyone got single rooms! They also said we were not allowed mobile phones but I decided on taking one anyway. I was very excited and decided that what was happening was not so bad. I received shocking news the very day we moved my things to the hostel. No continuous water supply. 10 minutes of water at 6 am and another 10 minutes at 6pm. We had to fill up our buckets for each day. It was also freezing cold water. There was no mechanized laundry. We had to wash our clothes ourselves. The caretaker always looked murderous. No plug points in the room so I could not smuggle a phone with me. No one outside of their own rooms after 8 pm. Roll calls every morning and evening. We had uniforms. It was despairing. My excitement evaporated and the distance between me and my family sank in hard. I cried myself to sleep every night. I felt like I was in jail.

I look back now and I cannot believe how melodramatic I was. But at that time I was not a happy person. I then remembered about using gratitude to dissolve any negative situations. So I said, “Thank you thank you thank you for the perfect resolution to everything” and felt grateful for the magical turn of events that brought happiness and joy back to me. That very day my mom called on the hostel phone and told me that dad had decided to shift houses to come somewhere near to me. I could not believe my good fortune! They would come in a year after my sister’s board exams. All through that year, the plan kept changing but it made something click inside of me; I started practicing gratitude like never before. I decided that I had a choice to enjoy my circumstances or moan about it. I said thank you to everyone, made friends with every worker and helpers in the campus, got my hair cut in a bob and just let go of all my ideas on who I was supposed to be. I let go of my plans for the future and I let go of all limitations I had over myself.

A year later, my family shifted to be near me, just like they planned to. It was effortless despite all the confusion, the plan went through. I had said ‘Thank you for a magnificent outcome to my family moving. Thank you for a magnificent outcome to their happiness and mine. Thank you for a magnificent outcome to finding a perfect school for my sister”. The results were the following:

They moved to a house 15 minutes away from me. The school they decided upon for my sister is opposite to the house, close enough to throw a ball into her classroom. The school board was the most advanced one in the country and her dreams of going to college abroad would be a piece of cake. The school atmosphere is the best and they sing pop songs every morning during prayer session. She gets to compete in so many competitions and the exposure is amazing. She could not be happier. The house they moved into is small and my mom loves it because cleaning up is effortless. She never had any time before to relax. But now, that is what she does most of the time. I get to eat lunch with my mom every day and eat delicious food from home. The event that turned my life upside down turned out to be the biggest blessing of my life. I have never been happier nor have I been more independent . Even though they moved to be near me and I love it all, I don’t feel dependent on them for my happiness anymore. I found joy all by myself. So thank you, thank you, thank you Rhonda for all this magic in my life!