If you’re a student who has studied in India or is currently studying here then, you are one of the many thousands who are asked to decide their career path when they’re only in 10th standard. The choices given are the usual Science, Commerce, and Humanities with little or no scope for the student to choose together a group of subjects which might belong to different streams. For example, if I am a student studying History, I cannot opt for Business Studies. Under these circumstances, choosing a course may prove to be a challenging task.
As a result of this, and many more shortcomings of our regressive education system, the student ends up choosing a stream after being influenced by family/friends, lack of research and no knowledge of the repercussions of such a misinformed decision. Then, the real battle begins. The student who thought Maths was all about surface, area and volume is soon introduced to Integration and the one who thought Chemistry is all about balancing equations is made to study topics like Organic Chemistry and P Block.
After these two difficult years of school, one thing is certain, that even if you might get confused about what you really want to do in the future, you get to know what you don’t want to do. Suppose, if you struggled through the years and didn’t like the subjects, it is only obvious that you don’t want to continue studying them throughout your college life as well. Now, this is the crucial point. Because of the pressure we feel, and our constant thinking of what others will say, we don’t want to raise our voice to show how dissatisfied we are. We are completely okay with repeatedly failing at something we’re not good at, rather than taking a difficult but necessary decision to recognize that this is not our calling.
Here is where I come in the picture. Through this article I am going to tell you how many of the people I know (Including myself!), are pursuing careers completely different than the streams they chose in their 12th standard and trust me, we’re happy.
I had a 10 CGPA and ended up choosing a Non-Medical stream with Computer Science. I never took any coaching for IIT and soon realized that I don’t see myself being part of the race to become an engineer. I focused on CBSE and thought DU is my calling. Today, I’m pursuing English (H) and I like every bit of my course. After having studied formulae and equations for so many years, this course was refreshing. The University provided me with a space to build my personality and even after my graduation, I can take up any field ranging from Law to MBA. So, my decision gave me freedom as well as time to explore myself.
I have friends from a science background who are now doing Law from National Law Universities. I know people pursuing Psychology in spite of having come from a Commerce background. So, basically, it all boils down to ‘What do you want to do with your life?’
Take college as a fresh start or a clean slate. Forget the pressure that people are putting on you. Research about the different fields, and realise what you want to do. Introspect. It is okay if you took a different stream in school. Ask yourself, what would you rather do- change your career prospects now to mark a stable future or change it after 5 years of struggle?
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