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/
