Sometimes it’s a matter of luck, and sometimes a little more hard work

To all the students out there who feel hopeless or unworthy, do realize, that no sheet of paper and no rejection letter can take away your abilities, writes Drishti Soni.

With the recently announced results of students, we see the stark difference in the marks as well as expectations of students. A person with 60% may be jumping with joy while someone might be beating themselves up with even a 90%. The thing is, the prominence of these marks is now not only defined by capabilities and expectations anymore, but also by a more dominating factor – competition. A fierce competition is relentlessly growing among the students. It doesn’t matter to someone if they score beyond their capabilities if they cannot score higher than that one person.

Earlier, the competition was healthy, where a student gave his best, felt happiness or a little remorse appropriately and moved on from a phase where marks interfered in his life. However, with the increasing entrances, cutoffs, and the overall standard of marks, well-wishers turn into people who trod on. And this is where it gets unhealthy.

With the number of upcoming fields that one could delve into, one would think that competition would be limited or minimized to very few areas. On the contrary, this has further increased the competition. It is no secret that our country has one of the highest youth population in the world. With teenagers realizing that anything they are passionate about can be turned into a career, masses of students are straying from the conventional fields of education that seemed to be the only existential ones a few years back. But not every career requires hundreds of candidates. Many require just a few sharp minds to carry forth their functioning. They pick only the brightest of the lot.

Unlike before where a gap of even 5% was not much of a big deal, even 0.01% can be the difference between achievement and loss. A large number of students miss out on their dreams, on their targets with the minutest of margins. Often the goals that are set become unrealistic, and unattainable. What needs to be understood is that a thing like marks is extremely subjective and must be competed for only within the genuine range of the student.

The increasing competition has produced a minority of exceptional and unbelievable results, making the whole nation swell with pride. But the vaster and darker side of this has been ignored. Countless students plunging into depression, becoming victims to societal pressure, and even going as far as taking their own lives for the petty amount of 2 marks. Many take to anger and frustration, resulted in various degrees of crime as severe as murder. There is another set of students, who take a road almost as bad, indulging in bribery and cheap politics to secure their aspirations regardless of their capability to perform. Due to this, deserving students, who put in their time and efforts lose out for no reason whatsoever to make way for a possible idiot to graduate with the degree they’ve been preparing for all their lives. It isn’t as much about the marks as it is about the concept of not having to work for something because they know they’ll get it anyway.

To all the students out there who feel hopeless or unworthy, do realize, that no sheet of paper and no rejection letter can take away your abilities. Things like these just give you an open window to look out for other opportunities, and broaden your horizon, because your college might not be enough. You may stumble across something that may boost you higher than you ever thought. After all, a diamond shines even in the rough. Don’t get upset because your best friend got into that college you planned to go to together, leaving you behind. Sometimes it’s a matter of luck, and sometimes a little more hard work. Use it as a motivating factor to make sure you do better the next time. Everybody lags sometimes, but make sure you catch up. Don’t make this turn you into a relentless, selfish and infuriated human.

It is essential for students and parents alike to understand that the very child for whom all of this madness is being created for, must be considered as he’s being thrown into the rat-race. Never forget that the loss of someone will never signify one’s victory. At the end of the day, success is significant only if it satisfies the person who strives for it. You could beat every person out there and still not be happy with where you are, or you could be living a basic life and enjoy it seamlessly. The system, the colleges, the scores of others, are not something you can change, no matter how hard you try. The only thing you can control is yourself. Keep in mind that a student may have gotten 5% less than that neighbor, but he could have surpassed his own expectations with those marks. Keep the competition alive and kicking as long as it motivates the student, but never let it alter the paradigm of success and morality.

Drishti Soni is a student from Mumbai.

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