Hey, this is Way and I hope all those reading this article are doing good.
It’s been almost a year or so since I’ve written my last article for the college magazine that I dearly loved. I don’t know how many people are going to read this article beyond the title and I have no expectations of this article becoming popular either.
But, there’s one thing I want to let you guys know before you leave the college premises and step into the crazy circus called life. For some it’s going to be easy, for some it’s going to be new, for some it’s going to be weird but for a lot of others like me it’s going to be confusing.
A lot of you might be flying abroad in a month or two and the remaining who will stay might have already found their jobs which they are going to stick with for a year or more.
But, that’s not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about something which you all feel deep inside but don’t know whether to ask it out or not. This is for you – ask yourself one thing before you step into the plane or step into the newly built infosys or TCS campus:

  1. Is this what I want?
  2. Is this what defines me?
  3. Will I be happy?
    The answer might probably be a ‘No!’.
    But, since you are trying to convince yourself that it is a ‘YES!’, go ahead with whatever you are doing.
    For those whose answer is a NO, you can continue reading – this is for you.
    Ask yourself what is stopping you from doing what you want?
    It might be that you don’t even know what you want to be. In such case it’s better to do what you’re already doing and continue doing until you figure things out.
    Life is easy only when you want to live it by yourself and your set of rules. But, none of us ( or those around me) live life for themselves; they live it for the people around them. This can include a broad range of people – it can be our parents, our neighbors, our teachers, the society, who not. All of those people are the ones who make the basic framework of what the society expects us to do and are stuck in it. We just fill in the void without even realizing what it is that we intend to do for ourselves.
    For those of you who are doing it just because you’ve gotten a degree or for the sake of your family or the society, you need to think again!
    If you can’t stand up to your parents or society and convince them about what you want to do, how do you intend to convince the people around you – your boss , your client – it’s harder convincing those people than your family because they don’t know who you are, they haven’t raised you.
    You might not want to do go through all that headache. This country needs a better class of citizens who can figure out what they want and by delivering value through whatever you are doing. You could also choose to opt-out by staying out of this argument and being happy with your life as an engineer in some company and being content with it. This might all sound like a boring lecture from a guy who you don’t even give a crap about.
    Just listen to yourself and question yourself before stepping out of the campus for one last time on the last day of your college.
    Is this what I came here for?
    It just can’t be that simple, right ?
    In a globalized economy and society, we fall prey to the needs of the broader society rather than ours without even realizing it.
    We study and take up jobs to feed the economy and that is what defines us in a modern society. The craving to get recognized in a broader world and that lust for recognition and a sense of achievement in terms decided by the society is what we try to achieve. Life becomes a struggle in unlocking each level .No matter how hard we try to achieve each one there is always another.
    We’ll never be able to finish the whole game. It’s better to take an unbeaten path of your choice and be happy with it rather than trying to take a highway without knowing the destination. It’s always easy to do what others have done before you but if that gives you happiness you should definitely do that. But, if you are not able to find a sense of contentment it’s better to figure out what is that thing that attracts you more than anything else and pursue it blindly. You’re hardly 21 or 22 when you leave college.
    There’s nothing wrong in figuring out what you want to be,even if you waste a few months after college.
    Some people might think otherwise. Do what’s good for you.

Because, as your senior, I don’t want you to regret about your life in the decades to come.

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