Emotion

It’s a regular phenomenon in each of our heads. Once in a while we are reminded of what we want to achieve in life, ponder on how close we are to it, which in most cases is nowhere close (yet). A few weeks ago I completed my fourth semester in engineering, which felt strange, and not because I had got more marks than I had expected (which happens like once in a millennium, usually its lesser than what I expect it to be), but because I was under the impression that I had joined this course recently , or at least that was the feeling that I had in my head. I had convinced myself that I had time before I faced the larger question in life, “What’s next?” It occurred to me that I had no clue on what I wanted to do next, suddenly everyone around me seemed to know and I was a lone nomad in a desert of uncertainty.

Family get-togethers often subject the younger generation to a lot of questioning, and some even throw in opinions and judgments on you. Most of the time, the questioning is on their favourite topic ‘what are you planning to do with your life?’

In general I hate being questioned, even over casual conversation. The reason is pretty simple actually, I simply do not have the answers to those questions. Sometimes I even want to tell them the truth, “I like eating, sleeping and spending time with my friends lazing around ,pointlessly roaming and pretty much end up doing nothing useful throughout the day. Since they don’t pay people to be on a vacation I decided to do engineering and the frank truth is, although most people think it’s easy, because half the country ends up doing it, this course is very hard and most of the time bores me to death. I can’t wait to get back from class because half the time I don’t even get what the teacher is saying and therefore find these classes totally useless. When the exams come, I read on my own, ensure my scores are good, just so that I don’t have to face a round of questioning from miserable people like you “

As tempting as it may be, I simply reply ”I think I will take up a job or continue on to pursue my post-graduation”

Post-graduation is the better choice they would all say

Post-graduation? Why in the world would I want to jump into a well that took me four years to get out of? Just so that I can do it in two this time?

Most people struggle to find out what exactly they want to do in life. They are confused. Society often remarks that my generation gets a lot more opportunities and options. They call it a boon. In reality it’s more of a curse, most people love doing more than just one thing and more often than not they never like anything completely. The era of questioning whether one is capable is long gone, there are more than a million universities waiting to boost your ego and let you pursue whatever you want.

The main problem is, you don’t know what you want. We hear of people who pursue a Masters degree in engineering and end up pursuing music as a profession, because they found a passion. The truth is, we like more than just one thing. Half the engineering lot ends up doing an MBA, not because they hated engineering. It’s because they are passionate about more than just a single subject.

Most people don’t know what they want, even at the age of forty we hear of people changing careers. If someone that old had not figured it out, isn’t it cruel to question young minds, uncorrupted my society “what they really wanted to do”. Most students in India who choose science group after 10^th , had not the slightest clue on what commerce had to offer. The ones who chose engineering after their 12^th did not know what a pure science subject had to offer.

What is the goal of an education system?

It should not be to generate individuals the society needs, it’s to generate individuals who shape society to a better tomorrow, not the other way round.

The reason all the ambiguity on what one really wants to peruse arises because higher secondary education fails to deliver its purpose. The system is flawed in its root level.

They tell the young and brilliant that exam results play the biggest role in shaping one’s career. How can the results of a mere test decide on whether a person is brilliant or not at a subject? Isn’t it wrong to define a student based on his academic record alone and force him/her to choose the course he gets in the university he gets. Added to this we have several parents who spoil young minds by telling them which subject they think is good to make a career out of?  Fast-forward five years, society questions them on what they want to do next? Naturally most of them do not have the answer. Fast-forward 20 years, naturally you will have people changing fields overnight.

Society often remarks that brilliant people like Einstein, Hawking or Steve jobs are born in every 150 -200 years. 

Here is the fact- they are born every day, it’s just that we kill their creativity, their instincts and their enthusiasm with what we think is better for them.

Every year we hear leaders say that education is the key to making the world better better. Society, it’s the same society that increases the tuition fee for higher education. it is the same society that will praise an individual on his success and condemn another for thinking differently.

To those losers, backbenchers, eccentric  dreamers, to those dream catchers and entrepreneurs, to those who believe in what they want and in themselves, let alone society, the world is too small a place to conclude whether we are capable or not.

Let alone a grade sheet.

We will not allow anyone define who we are.

Steve jobs once said “Because the ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are, the ones who do”