“My son’s scored 99%, an iota of mehnat (effort) would have let him scored 100%”
Parents are never satisfied, are they?
But are marks the only ultimatum in our lives? Is it the only way we can live a good life? Is scoring the best marks, the only way to please the people who love us?
I have always been an average student, I have never aimed to top nor have I given it a shot. I have been an average student in a room full of toppers and I am glad that I have never been envious about their achievements. I’m not trying to sound like a saintly personality here but that is how I have been brought up, and considering my recent experiences, honestly, I’m just glad.
Education is an essential part of our lives. No subject stands above or beneath anyone. Education gives us the nerve to say, ‘we know’ and also the courage to ask ‘why?’ This is where it all begins.
Right from class 8, our futures are strategised. We are directly given the titles of doctors and engineers even before we enter the respective fields. Few of us, follow what we’re told because we don’t want to hurt the sentiments of those we love.
Parents fail to understand and analyse what such commitments do to the personalities of their children. Students burn years of midnight oil to achieve what they are asked to pursue. They are administered to coaching centres where they hardly get a view of the artistic beauty of life. They fail to understand that human minds don’t work without relaxation.
The most heart rendering part of this situation is the personality disfigurement.
Students tend to indulge in unhealthy competitions. They are filled with emotions of loath and fright because they are scared to fall and desperate to rise. Benevolence, compassion and help seem to disappear from their lives because they are petrified to see others rise. They are wrathful at the very thought of it. They seem to forget the environment of attachment and humanity that schools had introduced us to.
Do we really want to be surrounded by such individuals who have sunk so deep in the belief of the survival of the fittest that they fail to apprehend the simple yet beautiful emotions like love, compassion and humanity?
Zig Ziglar said, “Success means doing the best we can with what we have. Success is the doing, not the getting, in the trying, not the triumph. Success is a personal standard, reaching for the highest that is in us, becoming all that we can be.”
Students must be taught to believe in themselves and the deeds they do. They must be focused, yet benevolent at the same time. We can never become what we are not. We can never defy nature. Believe in what you do, have faith in your endeavours and success shall follow your way.