I still remember the day I left my ‘home away from home’, Mayo College, Ajmer. I was studying in one of the most esteemed boarding schools of our country. Anyone who has been in a boarding school can relate to the kind of attachment you develop through your stay there.
Chapter 1: Every story has a backstory
Finally, Back at home, filled with the feeling of leaving so many memories behind, there stood the task of choosing my subjects. If you belong to an Indian family, you know the pressure of choosing the ‘ideal’ subjects. I personally think, there is no such thing as ideal, you can either choose the ideal thing and be average at it or you can choose something you love and be the best at it.
Chapter 2: Passion?
Well, nerd alert, I chose maths with physics and chemistry. Partially due to my interest in it and partially due to the apparent ‘societal pressure’. Now, being a teenager, you actually are not supposed to know where your interests really lie, here you just have to go with the gut feeling.
Chapter 3: The Beginning
I joined coaching so that I could prepare for the dreadful exam “drumrolls please”,
JEE (joint entrance examination). Believe me, when I say, I scored 95.4 per cent in the 10th boards and was confident this was going to be a cakewalk, but it really is not. What makes this exam difficult Is that you are tested on advanced applications of topics of sciences while just being in high school.
Chapter 4: Consistency is the key
JEE is more about consistency than it is about hard work. There are days when you just don’t feel like studying and you see your friends enjoying their teenage years while you are studying rigorously. “Heart wants what it wants”, you do get ‘crushes’ and many other distractions but you just have to remember your end goal and work hard for it.
You should also try to maintain your health and try to have healthy eating habits and have some exercise routine.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
As the preparation journey reaches its conclusion, you start dreaming of the freedom you will get after all of this struggle is over but the real thing you actually learn from this preparation is willpower. The struggles in life do not end, but the thing is you actually start to face them head-on.
Well finally after all of this, the struggles bore fruit and here I am writing this article, sitting in my room at “The Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur”. Perhaps, this too may end up being a “home away from home” for me.
‘Are the struggles justified?’, that is something you will decide for yourselves.
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