Applications, placements, scholarships, entrances and expectations- It’s a chain of words large enough to drown in. If you’re not drowning already, you’re nearly there- head barely visible above the mounting anxiety, voice a hoarse whisper as you dramatically send out a plea for help, or for some hot chocolate fudge and temporary respite.
But the above describes just one end of the spectrum. The other end comprises the clueless and the lost, those who watch the mad rush like a tennis match, struggling to find their place in this whirlwind of CVs and recommendation letters, and trying to pin-point a single course or career they would like to pursue.
Whether you belong to Category A or B, or fall somewhere in between the two extremes, first remember to breathe. If you’re preparing to immerse yourself in the onslaught of application deadlines and entrance examinations, remember again, that you must breathe. It’s absolutely alright if you are wandering and most certainly lost. Maybe everybody around you has got it all figured out- their future path of life charted out with the precision of an airplane. Maybe their goals are clear and set, while you’re still fumbling through college.
Most of us, while we are busy struggling to survive this barrage of applications and interviews, forget to make the most of our last year in college. Sometimes I hear myself saying I won’t do something this year because it’s my third year and I have “better things to do” or I’m “too busy” to plan a trip with friends for the mid-semester break. We’re so preoccupied with preparing ourselves for what will come once college is done and dusted, that we tend to forget to live in the here and now. Afterall, we will someday look back nostalgically at our times in college, wishfully yearning for one of those time turners.
For, at the end of the day, isn’t that all that matters? How happy you were while at college and how many memories you can look back on and smile? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not naive enough to say that pay packages and scholarships don’t matter. They do. A great deal, sometimes. But breathe through it all. We’ll survive.
Image credits: www.popsugar.com
Abhinaya Harigovind
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