Awesomeness!

It was going to be graduation time round the bend. Many of us were going to get an ominous looking fancy piece of paper soon. If your college is awesome it will say “Level up: Life Skill AWESOME acquired.” 

But for most of us it will just say our name and some words and a two digit summary of our  worth in the past 4 years staring us shamelessly on the face.

When I was an undergrad I remember looking forward to graduation so much. I thought to myself on a regular basis, “Just get through this. When it’s all done you’ll be able to make money and start your life.” By the time that day actually came, I was so underwhelmed with the whole "college experience" that I stopped regretting why we don't have a convocation 'cause most probably I wouldn’t have even bothered to

show up.

At least real life had started. And I was off to the races… not really. In the last six years I’ve met people who are in their late teens who I consider peers and equals; people who organize groups, throw giant successful events and still have time to kick college’s ass; people who make these crazy life altering decisions and go through so much for the sake of upholding a benevolent idea. I’ve learned a little bit from every single one of you. And I need you to know something else: You’ve changed my life. 

Just watching you do what you do has given me so much excitement about the world. You taught me the value of college outside of class when we were hanging out in the canteen, dancing, fighting over choreography, calling dibs over better rooms and bigger chunks of chicken, when we were royally ignoring people (or each other :p), or making up over a pan (yeah not bowl ;)) of hot or cold maggi, watching movies in the theatre or singing together. You taught when we were sharing a million stuff knowingly or unknowingly, when you were silent or grumbling or shouting or just texting "dinner?", "Canteen. step up 4 trailer. Awesome" "dup?" "chotto meye" (lil girl, in bengali) and so on and so forth.

Each one of us has some shortcomings and some redeeming qualities about us while some are kind or creative or funny or headstrong or whatever (the list of adjectives goes on and on..), some among these multitudes are good at BEING AWESOME.

What is BEING AWESOME, you ask? Well, there no 1

way to answer that but you can always try reading on:

And so I give you the 7 commandments of Being Awesome:

1. Be a dork. (or in another way Embrace who you are.)

A person who confidently accepts that he/she likes to read is always cooler than a person who wears a gothic Tee and gets hammered for the sake of trying to look cool.

2. Say YES to new things.

They take challenges head on.

3. Don’t take criticism personally.

They don't crib or whine about it on Facebook or twitter (in short the social media). They Listen. Process. Learn. Improve. Thank. <like I'm doing now  :p lol>

4. Embrace failure.

For every 1 good idea there are 10 bad ones to pull it back but these people say "F*ck the haters" and go on.

5. Persevere

They never give up without a fight. And they are amaaaaazing fighters (better than the spartans!)

6. Give everyone a chance.

I noticed something interesting about the people I consider to be excellent — they hang out with everyone. They have the oddest friends and they love them all. This gives them access to all sorts of strange worlds and social circles. Best friends come from strange and unexpected places so try not to judge anyone before you get to know them. This has a cool side effect too — when you try to see the positives in other people instead of judging them harshly, the voice that thinks other people are judging YOU harshly tends to shut up.

7. Life starts today.

Above all else, they realize that they’re already the person they hope to become more or less. They stopped waiting ages ago. Waiting for some day to come when someone else gives you a permission slip to live or validate your existence is a sure-fire one-way ticket to S*cksville.

This stuff is easy. Being awesome doesn’t depend on your parents, or the amount of money you have, or what you’re good at. All you need to do is make the decision to behave in a manner that is more awesome. Saying yes is only a little different than saying no.If you can figure out how to stop listening to the voice in your head that is afraid of the unknown and instead say, “F*ck it, from now I’m gonna be awesome,” then you’ll be on your way to kicking ass in no time.

I can actually guarantee that.

So yeah you guys Thanks!

#LiveItUp \m/