So…we’ve finished school. Whether you’re heading off to university, going into work, taking a gap year to do resits or embracing your wanderlust this post might just be relevant to you.
The prospect of entering the ‘real world’ is a daunting one because when you really start to assess your newfound circumstances you realise that you no longer have the safety net that is school. Think about it, years of teachers telling you when to hand homework in, when to revise and being guaranteed going into year 10 when you’re in year 9. I mean no one misses being patronised or being excluded for nearly taking someone’s eye out but you catch my drift. After you’ve left school you’re not promised anything; it’s like you’re stranded with no lifeboat. This can especially be the case when you don’t find yourself to be on a conventional path i.e. university. At times like this you may feel lost especially when you can’t pinpoint what your purpose in life is. It then becomes your responsibility to make your own life boat with what you have; this encourages you to really be independent, to find your calling and to start being proactive – something similar to what Paulo Coelho calls a ‘Personal Legend’.
Feeling lost doesn’t exclude people who are in university pursuing a course, more often than not people aren’t really sure why they’re doing the degree they’re doing. It’s really worth to take a step back and question what you’re doing and why, there’s no point blindly going after something that isn’t even your dream. I’m not saying you should all have it figured out by now, I mean I don’t, but don’t be consumed by this idea that you have to follow a certain path because others have. Your path to success won’t be the same as someone else’s – so why copy?
To those who find themselves in a defeated disposition after not achieving the goals they set out last year thinking it’s ‘the end’- it isn’t. See I like to think life is like a river and you’re on a boat; imagine that you’re floating down this river and suddenly the aroma of food hits you, you see flashing lights in the distance and you can hear the faint playing of music. You continue down this river, the aroma is stronger, everything is getting brighter and the music is beating much more loudly- you are closer to the ‘happy times’. Finally you’ve reached the paradise; it’s a party and there’s people everywhere having a good time and life seems great, but remember your boat is still carrying on down this river. The lights get dimmer, you cease to smell the food, people become scarce and the music dies down. You’re moving away from the ‘happy times’ and you start to panic and frantically try to paddle your boat back to the party. You can’t. It’s at this point that you start to become upset and depressed, you’re in the dark and no one’s there. It continues like this for sometime – suddenly you hear the faint playing of music. Ever heard of the saying ‘go with the flow’?
– H.SR
A Journey 