I've been preparing for jee seriously for about 2 years now. That plus the isolation that the pandemic caused has left me with a very clear stance on this. That no career now can convince me to give up on my social life.

Success is fine but failure is so, so much more daunting when you don't have much else to hold on to. Good friends really help with that. I've been pretty miserable these past two years with all the uncertainty and failures and I do think the main reason was that I made this my entire life purpose. Even getting a closure and moving on from this phase now is so hard.

Finding a middle ground would always be what you should strive for but if I had to choose, I know it would be living my life and not just slaving away.