A pleasant surprise

The sun only rose to pierce through my eyes. I woke up, reluctantly, with a feeling of anxiety, a familiar feeling I had two years back. Was I heading towards another rat race? The question was at the back of my mind throughout that week. 

This perception of mine came from the two years I spent in those cramped up coaching classes, surrounded by fat specs and swollen eyes .Struggling to feed their brains with what seemed to me like useless knowledge with no practical application. Obviously there wasn’t a room for socializing. Not a surprise, I expected the same from college.

The anxiety gave way to laziness. "Come quick, you don’t even want to miss a single minute of that orientation!" screamed my mom - she had no idea. I threw myself at the back seat of the car as we started off towards the much celebrated "PEC".

Another frightening thought came to my mind on our way. I wasn’t going to stay at home; I was going to live in a cubicle now. Loneliness scared me the most  Most of my past two years were spent in a minimally socializing routine , but there were always parents and grandparents - not even them anymore .I wasn’t used to being alone before the 11th grade , I am a defence kid !.  I am sure it wasn’t just me getting all these jitters. The very foundation of the education system in India is rat race and stampede. It compels many to be isolated socially and, of course, depression.

The orientation was over and all that I had expected earlier was, thankfully, contradicted. It wasn’t about academics, cgpa, the competitive world, etc. It was actually refreshing. The clubs and societies actually existed, even better, they are not all technical and after interacting with the crowd, the anxiety, as if magically, vanished. Hostel wasn’t going to be lonely, that's for sure. 

Sure it is too soon to judge the entire college life in two days but now I know it's definitely not a coaching institute. I now have gathered enough courage to carry on.  

Now I know what I have to look forward to.

 -Tarun, 1st year