New At College

August 3^rd- 2019

I was too old to feel confused or nervous on the first day of college. The only thing bugging me at the back of my mind was that I wasn’t able to find the damn lecture room in time.

In the beginning we had a two week long induction programme, the drill was: get to college, then to class, from there to the auditorium, hear various lectures, roam around the campus.

The only thing that intimidated me was the rank holding students, who were way way above me in matters of academics, I have this myth (which I made myself) that people excellent at academics aren’t very social and have a superiority complex. Well the reason I call that a myth now is because I was proven wrong (not completely, but to a very good extent). The students were extremely friendly and helping. But some of them fell a little short when it came to meme knowledge, which was quite disappointing.

The frustration that was within me since 12^th which was that I couldn’t participate in extracurricular finally found consolation the moment I started taking up auditions for the various clubs and societies.

The past 6 months had been a time of Great enlightenment for me, the greatest thing I learnt was respecting difference of opinions. For me the many years I had spent in the past I had always been in company of people sharing thoughts and opinions similar to mine. Cut to now where people had such bizarre thoughts. It was difficult for me to digest such diversions from what I believe to be normal; but hey, I guess normal is subjective. From “oh my God how can you even say that?” to “oh well that’s what you think, this is what I think, we’ll agree to disagree” was the greatest change I experienced in myself.

Now, coming to academics. In a government college like mine, I was prepared to face classes with notebooks properly labelled. But a great senior then told me “ ye sab faltu hai, kuch padhai nahi hoti yaha, sab khud padhte hain” which again I was surprised to hear. But I found out the magnitude of this truth the hard way. Guys, trust me when you’re in college, what you will need more than anything is friendly seniors (who have a good GPA). They will guide you like the northern star guided the shepherds to Bethlehem. Academics are just secondary; developing your skills, learning new ones is prime. And government colleges are no short on resources for that. Just make yourself a better equipped person to face the uncertainties of the future. Learn to speak, to act, to write, to programme, to design, to manage, to enjoy, baqi padhai to ho hi jayegi. And marks are not a worry; as long as you remain familiar with what you’re studying you’ll get good marks. I just realized this turned into a lecture. Now moving on.

Do I miss school? Well yes, but no.

No because everything I had in school is now more advanced and amplified here, I learn to reason with and about things here whereas in school I was only given the choice to accept facts.

In school my motive was boards and good marks, here my motive is to make myself the best Adnan possible, to learn everything new.

And yes because, school was where I made long term friends, that’s never going to happen here. Even here I am most comfortable with the people I’ve been with in school (thankfully there are a lot of them). I’ll miss school because nowhere else will I find more caring teachers. Those who really cared about me and my grades; those who saw me as a person and not a mere Roll number. Here only a couple of teachers have that quality in them. Rest are only concerned with delivering lectures and checking copies and not an iota more than that.