School is that perfect place,that everyone thinks will set them up for life. For some it's the place that grounds them for life,for some it's an early mating ground, for some a play ground, for many others school is just one more step and for a few lucky ones it gives them a direction in Life.
And for many reasons, good or bad, you always have these snapshots of school life that you never really forget.
I changed a couple of schools,and as a result i never really loved any, in a way one should. So when I call myself a patelian (Sardar Patel Vidyalaya,grade 6th-12th), I donot really feel like one. what's worse, I have at home an epitome of patelianess, my sister, a true patelian to the core (in the school since nursery). Even though in many ways the school actually made me the person I am today, I have never felt a sense of belonging to it, ofcourse in part my free spirit is to be blamed.
So, while i built a strong individual identity, I didnt really identify with anyone else, I had no sense of belonging. In essence I was like this small rivulet not knowing my source, and that point of time in my life not knowing my mouth. ( Note : the mouth, of a river is known as its base level, the end where it drains itself)
I entered college with a heavy heart, It was not what I had wanted for myself at all. As a child I had ig dreams of going into Medicine and now I was stuck in an unheard of engineering college, doing something I had never heard of before : Biotechnology. Life and it's games! To top it all , I had to wear a uniform to college and that too with a tie. All my school years I had smirked at other school people when that had to wear horrible ties, and here I was stuck for four years with what i had hated witha passion. You will realise that when you are kinda down in the dumps even the slightest of discomforts, arouses in you the strongest of passions: in my case hatred for an innocent tie. It is ofcourse another matter that in my four years, i was one of the 'out of line' ones who never bothered to wear the uniform let alone 'the tie' and I made it a point to never learn to tie a tie(knot).
College gave me the best four years of my 22 years of Life. College was my grounding, it was my play ground(met my best friends here, ankit, rohitash, ankita, sukul, abhas sir, smit, met unlikely like minded people like nidhi and amol,refound varun,lost dev),found ravi it gave me a direction in Life and best of all it gave me a sense of belonging. Despite it being nothing like the college of my dreams, it was both my haven and my adventure.
It shook me up,fit me in ,pruned and accessorized me,took me to newer highs, dropped me to newer lows,made me a believer, a fighter and infused in me the power of persevernce and goodness and helped me overcome all my insecurities. Ofcourse there were bad grades and Holi fines, phone confiscations and 9 pm curfews, but hey who cares cause' there were good grades too and Ankita n me are the only gals to have entered the boys hostel (thanks to the holi fine: 2000 bucks to play holi with a bunch of nuts) and the phone confiscation made me realise I was not above others and I never followed the 9 pm curfew.
It gave me my many firsts,first infatuation, first real heart break,first ouster from class, first night out, first hostel, first bike ride,first flat sleep over, my first music appreciation and not to forget, my first four year degree.
At 22 I have realised that those four years are the most enviable part of the 22. Nothing could ever measure upto the bond I share with Jaypee Institute of Information Technology.
to be contd...
