FINAL YEAR, the word fascinates all of us. In the beginning
of college, you see the people of final year and think that these guys are
really mature. They are having jobs, experience of surviving the entire college;
some of these are going to better colleges for PG while some are having some other
better plans. The seniors look far more mature and talking to them is a
pleasure as you think that you are gaining something from them. In the 3rd
year, the final year fantasies revolve pretty much around 2 things. The first
is to get a nice job or to secure admission into a nice PG college and second
is the fun afterwards. Plans to travel across the country; visiting Goa, Mumbai
or any other place with your gang and capturing all the moments to ensure that
you have best memories that will be cherished for the rest of your life.
College life differs a lot from school in a way that group
politics plays a huge part here. There are visible boundaries between various
groups but final year is the time when the boundaries start fading away. People
mix up again as they used to in the earlier days of college. People start
talking to one another again and share everything that happened within the
college time. Classes are fun again as no one is interested in any sort of
study, in fact no one is interested in attending them, people attend them as
they have nothing else to do.
Final year is the time when you start forgiving people that
so far you have intensely hated and why not as they are no longer going to be a
part of your life. You start talking nicely to everyone as nothing matters
anymore. It’s like in the end, everything is coming together not because it was
suppose to but because nothing matters now so what’s the harm in brining everything
together. There is not much of enmity left between anyone.
Final year is also a healing and redemption phase for many
people. Hearts are already broken long ago; Dreams are scattered; Myths are
busted and you have hit the rock bottom so many times that you are no longer
afraid of falling. Many of you have seen your worst nightmares becoming a
reality. You start recollecting pieces of your heart to start a new emotional
adventure. The tiny hopes group together to form a cluster of optimism and the
future looks bright again. You rediscover yourself and define yourself in a
better and more mature manner and you start trying again for new things. The
sheer frustration of not meeting your potential or not reaching where you
thought you must have reached starts dissolving and fading and you look forward
for newer challenges.
I guess the name final year is quite ironic in a way that
only a phase is ending but it’s more of a beginning of an entire new era of
someone’s life. An era where you start
again from square zero without any prejudice about yourself, an era where not
much is left to prove and there is an ample space for growing and learning
again. We are transiting to the professional world and the rules of their game
are quite tough and cruel than our game. There would be funny incidences but it
would lack the genuine careless laugh, there would be money but it would lack
the people and the time to spend to, there would be dreams but it would lack
the motivation to chase them, there would be recognition but it would lack the
respect that should comes with it.
Most of us have lived a conventional life so far in the
college. We were scared of chasing what we want to do because it was not what
we had to do. We were afraid to learn a new language as we were worried about
completing our lab assignment. We were afraid to learn to play the guitar as we
were afraid about our scores of mid semester. We wanted a trip to some remote
place but our coaching classes won’t allow us to do. We wanted to do some NGO
work but we have to prepare for campus. Lastly, there were times we wanted to
do nothing, just sit into blank or just sleep the whole day but we were afraid
others are working hard so we should do the same.
Most of us spent the whole college life in insecurity,
restraining and constraining ourselves as we thought that we must work hard to
reach somewhere not to do things that give us pleasure. Of course, we had fun
hang outs, we watched sitcoms, we didn’t study much but it was not in the usual
careless manner. We had our regrets of not utilizing our time properly. Some of
us reproached ourselves when we failed to score well in a mid semester or an end
semester. We didn’t enjoy life as it was supposed to be but we enjoyed it for
the sake of enjoying. There was a restriction there also; it was more of a
conventional enjoyment that others are enjoying so I should also enjoy.
Now in the remaining time, I say lets investment this time
in our betterment. Do something that we always wanted to do. Learn to dance, play
guitar, some language, some technology and if you don’t want to do anything,
then don’t. Don’t force betterment on you for the sake of running in the next
round. Sleep without setting the alarm if you don’t want to wake early. There
is no harm at times in sitting and watching every other person you know
running. Rest is good. It opens our eyes and help us to see what we really want
to do in life and how should we do it. Let us sketch our future with all the
colors we had and if we are missing something then leave it blank as life would
choose the best colors for it by its own will and at the proper time.
There shouldn’t be any regret in the last phase of college.
Let us try to make this final year not an end but a beginning of something new,
lay the foundation of something strong, and base our entire future on it so
that when we would look back we would feel proud of the one decision we had taken in these last moments and make sure the entire direction of our life would change from here. We must
remember it’s just final year but it’s not the end.
