It’s Really Not the End of the World

There is no purpose to life. At least, there is no one singular purpose to life. And perhaps that is a frightening thing to hear when you have just entered college, especially if you have come here after spending the last few years preparing for JEE.

For a long time, life can feel remarkably simple. There was always someone or something giving you a destination. A syllabus to finish, an exam to prepare for, a rank to chase, a cut-off to beat. There were teachers, parents, coaching centres, mock tests and timetables keeping track of what you were doing and, sometimes, even the time you spent doing it. Your next goal was almost always obvious.

And now, suddenly, you have a college. A new life and a newfound freedom. There is no single exam waiting at the end of these four years demanding that you excel at it. No one is going to monitor every second of your day. No one is going to tell you exactly what you should be doing with your time.

So, now what?

What do you actually want to do when nobody is telling you what you are supposed to?

That may be one of the most exciting and also the most frightening things about entering college.

Because most of us have spent years being told, directly or indirectly, that winning is the point. Get a better rank. Get into a better college. Get a better package. Get a better job. The scoreboard keeps changing, but the game seems to remain the same.

Except that now you are surrounded by people who also got top ranks, who also did well in school, who also have solved difficult problems, and who also have impressive things on their resumes. The person who was always among the best in their class may suddenly find themselves surrounded by people who are just as good, or perhaps better, at something they thought they were particularly good at. And that can make you wonder: if I am not the best anymore, then who am I?

Perhaps the answer is much simpler than we think. You are still you.

You were never just your JEE rank. You were never just your marks, your school, or the college you got into. And you certainly do not have to spend the next four years proving that you deserved to get here.

Because college is not another JEE. But it is remarkably easy to turn it into one.

We start comparing CGPAs, then internships, then research projects, then placements, then salaries, then companies. It’s just never ending. Before we even realise, we can find ourselves spending four years playing a game whose rules we never really chose to begin with.

There is nothing wrong with ambition. If you want to become an exceptional researcher, go for it. If you want to build a company, build it. If you want a ₹50 lakh package, work for it. If you want to publish papers, win hackathons, become a great programmer, compete in sports, or do something nobody around you has done before, please do it. There is nothing wrong with wanting to win.

The problem begins when we start believing that we must win in order for our lives to be worthwhile.

You will fail here. Almost certainly. You will get a grade you did not expect. Someone will understand something faster than you. Someone will write better code than you. Someone will get the internship you wanted. Someone will publish before you. Someone will receive a better package. Someone will be better than you at something you thought you were particularly good at. And eventually, you will probably be the person who is better than someone else. That is simply what happens when you put a lot of talented people in the same place.

You cannot win at everything. And you do not need to.

It is okay to fail. Not every failure has to become a motivational story about how you “learned something valuable”. Sometimes you worked hard and it did not work. Sometimes someone else was better. Sometimes you made a bad decision. Sometimes you simply were not good enough yet. And sometimes you just did not care enough to be good at it.

That is okay.

More importantly, it is okay not to win. And not to be the best.

This may be one of the most difficult things to accept after spending your teenage years being rewarded for winning. You might love something and still not be the best at it. You might lose competitions, miss opportunities, struggle with research, or simply be bad at something you enjoy.

Do it anyway.

Not everything has to be useful. Not everything has to go on your resume. Sometimes the reason to do something can simply be, “I like it”, and “I enjoy doing it.”

No one can give you a purpose for your life. Not JEE, not IIITH, not your parents, professors, advisors, or your future employer. There is no syllabus for a meaningful life. You have to decide what is worth doing with the time you have.

And that is what makes this newfound freedom so exciting. For perhaps the first time, you get to choose. What do you want to learn? What do you want to try? Who do you want to spend your time with? What do you actually care about?

Be ambitious if you want to be ambitious. Compete if you enjoy competing. Try to win. But do not turn college into another JEE rat race.

Do what you, and only you, want to do. Not what is expected of you.

Why? Oh my friend, it really is not the end of the world.

Get over with the JEE trauma. You have a real opportunity to finally have a life now.

There is much more to life than just exams, marks, ranks, jobs and packages.

Go on that random trip. Stay up talking to your friends till 3 a.m. Join that club you’ve been curious about. Learn the guitar. Play football even if you’re terrible at it. Build something weird. Read books that aren’t in the syllabus. Waste an evening watching the sunset. Fall in love with a subject. Or decide it’s not for you. It’s all part of the experience.

So don’t rush through college waiting for “real life” to begin.

This is real life.

One day you’ll walk out of this campus for the last time, and I promise the things you’ll remember won’t be your quiz scores or that one course you got an A. It’ll be the people, the memories, the late nights, the stupid decisions, the inside jokes, the random adventures, and the version of yourself you became along the way.

Don’t spend all of college preparing for life.

You’re already living it.

Make it a good one.