So, I just graduated. Virtually. In a Pandemic. If you had told me this a year and a half ago, I’d have laughed out like a madman and called you cuckoo. But here we are now. Suffice it to say, it is quite…. Weird? We are all so used to seeing undergrads graduate or have a farewell that is in the college, caps flying, a jubilant mood, an emotional goodbye to a place where many truly become who they are as a person. We had it as a live event. Online. Where half of the population didn’t even attend. The ones who did? Masked by the cover of their devices. I wondered, what was the point of all this then?
A young person, fresh out of school, joins a college, free from the shackles that was binding him (even more so if he or she separates from the family), finds people who shape their character, takes up something that excites them, rises and falls like the crests and troughs of a mountain, moulds his academia into something that could last an entire lifetime and finally grows into a proper adult. This is how the trajectory of a normal college student goes. For us however, that was cut short right in the middle. We were literally sent back to a shackle of sorts and I fear a lot of people regressed into a person they never wanted to become.
A cloud of uncertainty metastasised into a torrential storm of anxiety, uneasiness, bone breaking bouts of sedentary behaviour and a general lack of interest in any activity. I like this statement I phrased; people need people to be people. We are a social being, we need contact from others, we have been wired to survive that way and when that has been lost, our purpose seems diluted. No amount of online contact and virtual interactions can fix that. We simply need to see it, in person, to believe it.
As such, graduating from college in such a time, especially when we are heading to the real world where everything is a challenging competition, feels incomplete. It feels unnatural, because it is so unnatural for us. But, as I said in my farewell speech, as a general human being and as people of the world, we have always found ways to adapt and survive to whatever challenge put forth in front of us. An incident I didn’t mention in my speech, I lost a very close friend to suicide a few months back and that changed my entire being. I was so close to fully recovering from the loss of my uncle and a broken relationship when this happened. I found myself to be in a very dilapidated condition. Broken, questioning my own existence and unable to communicate with others, it was quite miserable (These are all very common reactions to a passing of a loved one, especially to suicide, and it is completely okay to have them). I don’t think I would completely get over that incident but in time I realised a lot of things and got a better grip of things and bounced right back up from the pits of hell. Of course, I had the help of my very close loved ones and one needs to take help from them whenever you can, but at the end of the day there is only so much they can do for you. At the end of the day, you yourself are responsible for how you react to circumstances. They will give you the push you need, but you need to take the chance and leap from it. That is how anything works. I digress, but presently I am absolutely content and happy with myself and I have found my inner self. It is always through the worst of times that the best of things come out. You always learn a lot more from negative experiences than positive ones and as you think about that statement, you’ll relate your experiences and find it to be quite true.
Relating this back to the graduation, no matter how it is now you must realise that nothing lasts forever, be it good or bad, and after a while everything comes to an end. This once in a century pandemic might seem quite bleak and unpleasant now but I know for a fact that it will come to a conclusion sooner rather than later and I stick on to that to power me through these times. Sure, I was deprived a half of my growth but I found myself nonetheless albeit through harrowing challenges. Isn’t that a beautiful thing though?
😌😌😌