From 22 to 23

My parents, my teachers, my uncles, my aunts, they all had one thing to say when I was young-"Enjoy these days of your life. Nothing is as beautiful as childhood". I would look at them, scornfully and say-"Bah! There is nothing more tough than the school life-the classes, the homework, the tests."

As I stand on the verge of turning 23, I realize the fallacy of my words and the radiant truth behind those drops of wisdom. How I would love to go back to those beautiful classrooms, study maths/history/science, play cricket in the evening, and enjoy Enid Blyton story books with gay abandon. Nestled in the red bricks of Bal Bharati Public School was a secure environment filled with the love of parents and friends, and an optimistic attitude towards life which made us smile and laugh without worrying about anything else.

People often say that going from school to college is one of the biggest transition that a teenager ever faces. I respectfully disagree. There is no bigger change than the one we face as we move out of college and face the "real world". I was one of the lucky ones, had a great college filled with some great friends, and twists and turns that would put a Karan Johar classic to shame.

And then exactly a year ago, I permanently left behind the securities of a world that was insured by my parents. It has been quite an experience, different from anything I have ever had. There have been the highs, and the lows. But I take the chance to jot down some points, some experiences that I had as I move from 22 to 23.

1. You are alone: This one is a real good one. We realize, after completing graduation, that we stand alone. We have to charter out a path for yourself. Sure, this is told to us earlier also. But the actual meaning and interpretation of this hits us now. It is a learning experience to do a lot of things yourself, to search, explore find the avenues leading to the path that we intend to follow.

2. Appreciation: I have learned to appreciate a lot of people around me now that I see what it takes to call yourself successful. The hurdles that people senior to us have faced, withstood and solved makes you respect them that tad bit more.

3. Initiative: In school, and even in college, there was a guiding hand, be it your teacher, your professor or your parents. Now, we have to find out things for ourselves. An initiatives needs to be taken, we need to put our hands up if we are to learn new things.

4. Family: When we were young and needed any support- moral, monetary or mental, we turned to our family. But somehow, we( atleast I ) never appreciated it that much. Now, after days of work, when we return home, our head full of tensions regarding a zillion thing, when someone sits next to us and gives  that invisible support without uttering a word, we relish it. The mere knowledge of someone sitting across the bed listening to our stories is an ethereal feeling.  The security of your house after returning from the other world is unbeatable. As a wise man once said, home is where your heart is.

5. Career: As a youngster, you dream of the world and care for nothing. The weight of this thought-career starts hitting after crossing college. We realize that to change your dreams to reality, we require a huge amount of hard work and luck. There is lots of pressure on you to achieve something, While sometimes it can be a boon, there are times when the very same thoughts can cripple you.

6. Friends: It is a bitter sweet experience, this one. I have been fortunate enough to find a set of new friends as I moved into college. But I realize, that as we grow older, we will have two sets of people. There will be some people who will stick by you through the thick and thin, you learn to treasure their presence in your life. And at the same time, some will go, too involved in their own world and too busy with their work to remember you exist. Neither set is wrong, sometimes life extracts so much out of us that we can't remember anything else.

 Like the last point, this last year has been a bitter sweet experience. It has brought about a world of change and I am gradually learning to accept and enjoy these changes.

But yeah, there is nothing to beat the feeling of playing cricket for hours, the feeling of swimming lap after lap, the feeling of playing badminton game after game, without having to think of companies, jobs, boss and career.

Childhood is a blissful time.

PS- Thanks Aastha, for forcing me out of lethargy and making me write. It feels great!