I've come a long way baby!

If I could take you all back in time to, let’s say, three years ago, I could have introduced you to a blissfully ignorant and highly delusional young lady. She used to think that the only things in life that were worth giving a thought to were chemistry problems and Romantic poetry! The only thing worth looking for was Orion in the night sky. All other practical mundane things took care of themselves.
Yes, that was me, only three years from today, living in my ivory tower with no worry other than what I was going to wear to college that day. My room seemed to clean itself no matter how messy I used to leave it everyday. The clothes strewn on the floor would pick themselves up, wash and iron themselves and find their way back into my closet. Food would appear miraculously on the table whenever I was hungry! An atmosphere very conducive for intellectual pursuits but very detrimental to the development of one's practical skills.
But this state of utopia could not continue forever and I was cruelly thrown into a 4 ft by 6 ft room in IIT where I had to make my own bed, mend my own socks and wash my own clothes. Never in my dreams had I imagined that reality could be this cruel. So I simply rebelled against it. I would buy new clothes to replace the old and dirty ones instead of washing them. Instead of eating in the hostel mess, I started eating out or ordering food.
So Fate thought that it would dig deep into my fool's paradise with its iron talons and shred it into bits until it was no more. It brought me to the other end of the world, all by myself, and made me live completely on my own!
My first day of cooking was a complete disaster! I reassembled the pressure cooker which my Mom had packed in for me. Then I studied it for about 15 mins and then finally called up my Mom.
"The lid is bigger than the body. I think you have given me the wrong lid. This one won't fit. It is too big!" I wailed.
I could almost sense my Mom's exasperation over the phone as she gave me very explicit instructions as to how I could get the lid attached to the body of the cooker. Next came the even most difficult part.....COOKING! I had dreaded it all my life as if it was a disease, something along the lines of the bubonic plague.
So my mother had to be woken at an ungodly hour by my confused wailing.
"Exactly how much oil should I put? And how much salt should I add?"
"According to your taste" she yawned!
"That is not an answer! Tell me, how many milliliters of oil should I add and how many grams of salt should I put! Tell me the exact measurements!" I snapped.
In the background my brother giggled "We shall overcome some day......"
And with an iron will, some minor guidance from the cooking gurus and a lot of failed attempts, I finally overcame my inhibitions and fear of cooking.
The other day, when I was promising someone that I will make paneer butter masala for her over the weekend; I couldn’t but help feeling proud of myself. I even know how to make sweet and sour shrimp and I can wash dishes and keep my room clean. Managing all this as well as my intellectual pursuits has become like a sort of a juggling act and sometimes I do feel like twenty four hours aren't enough in a day. However, what I also know is that there is a still a long journey ahead of me before I master the art and science of home management. And I can never rest until I have attained perfection and hence the strife continues. But once in a while, I like to give myself a pat on the back and say "you've come a long way baby!"