Ask What Makes You Feel Right

Vaibhav was in his 12th grade and he could already feel the pressure to perform building up. He was giving consistently good performance in his previous classes which gave rise to his parents, teachers and peers expectations. He was considered an intelligent student and was expected to clear all the entrances with flying colors. Of all the available options he chose to appear for IIT JEE entrance and make his parents proud. Vaibhav belonged to a small town of India which was still not exploited by the big branded coaching institutes meant for preparing students for such entrances. He sort to his school teachers guidance who advised him to stick to the text books when there was a lot more to be done and solved. Due to lack of options Vaibhav went on preparing the same way and appeared for the entrance. The day he held the IIT JEE paper in his hand , he was all clueless as to how to start solving it.  He somehow solved it to the best of his capabilities.

He dreaded the day the results were out, declaring he couldn’t make it to IIT much to his parents, teachers and peers disappointment. He himself was heartbroken and couldn’t see eye to eye and had ducked himself in the room for three days and came out with another determined decision of reappearing in the IIT JEE entrance exam but this time with the help of a big coaching institute.

Once decided , it took him great courage and some humiliation to ask for such a big sum as fees for his coaching. One and a half month of his preparation journey and he saw his worst nightmare. An ongoing dispute between the tutors made them resign from their duty, leaving all the students stranded. This was the time of great stress for Vaibhav. There was lack of  guidance and all that money was going into the drains. He couldn’t mention about this eventuality to his parents or anyone else. This made him slip into depression. He still struggled through the preparation and appeared for the exam. The results were out and he had not made it to IIT again this time.

Vaibhav was all shattered and had given up but time acted as a best healer and he decided to prepare once again on his own. Post all his efforts the score did not take him to IIT but he managed to secure his place in a decent engineering college. Who knew this score was not enough to shut people up. He could hear people disparaging his effort and belittling his capabilities. They made it appear as if all his old accolades were a matter of fluke. He chose to ignore it all.

Four years have passed and he has cashed every opportunity to secure his future. Now he has realized that life is not meant to be a part of the rat race. The burden of worldly expectations is only meant to bring us down. Ask what makes you feel right and go for it. Competition and opportunities go hand in hand no matter what you choose to do. Its your life and you have to live each of your decision. After all, survival isn’t about being at the top but to be happy in whatever we do.