One of the most common childhood dreams of all of us was growing up and going off to college.Maybe it was because of the movies we grew up watching or maybe the mere sense of freedom and liberty associated with college life that appealed to us.
However, we got done with school life, and with many tough decisions to make, we chose one course, one college, that would define the following three or four years of our lives. It was a huge transition, from the use of multi-coloured pens for notes to using a multi-purpose five subject notebook, we grew up. Here, learning was secondary, fun was our priority. Some were fitting in, and others were standing out. If we were one of a kind in our batches back in school with regards to dreams and aspirations, there were about 70 of them that were similar in one way or the other.
Irrespective of whether the college life was as we have always dreamed of, three years down the lane, when you look back, it is all just perfect.
Here is the thing, Personally, my college life wasn’t like the movies we watch or the books we read about them in. It was perfect, my college life kind of perfect. College was a celebration, but one of those for which you HAD to wake up early to enjoy, literally! It was filled with deadlines, attendance records, lectures that we slept through and also, lectures that we gave ourselves. Those last minute submissions, late night preparations, made it seem like we are barely scraping through, but in the end, it was all worth it.
College taught me so much, beyond the intended syllabus- of and about people. Three years have flown by, and in these years, I have learnt what it is to be a lazy bunch, what it is to have a bunch of classmates who help you out, those who care, those who can always relate to, what it feels like to be in a no-drama zone with like-minded individuals, what it feels like to yearn for a holiday and I could go on and on.
As I bid adieu to what has been my must-go-to place the last three years, I realise that when I go out, I will no longer be able to bug my representative for a holiday, I will no longer be able to walk past a table and just grab a bite of my classmates ‘tiffin’ / ‘lunch’ open there, I can no longer watch TV shows and Movies that my friend in front of me is watching. Scarves and bags will no longer serve as pillows and headaches will be for real. There won’t be any lift rules to ensure that the stairs keep us fit, and cafeteria food for us to regain the burnt calories from climbing up and down the ‘nth floor our classroom was on.
Every time I am going to be late here on, it will cost me and the attendance just seems like a very considerate price to have paid these three years. Dropping off or being dropped off, triples and overloaded cars will cease to exist. And headphones will replace a friend’s chatter in bus and train journeys.
With all the replacements coming in, we will go on our own paths; these three years were the ones we had chosen the following will be too, but just not together. From day one and the Fresher’s Party to graduation, we have come along a long way. The numerous dances and celebrations the mandatory events that we attended, the rehearsals, the sound checks, the mid-lecture hogging, the post-lecture sighs, free hour cheers and early morning holiday declaration messages, the secret selfies, the candids, the debates, the boomerangs, the videos, condonation queues, the last minute notes and important questions circulation there is a lot that we shared, but sadly, three years has been too short a while.
As the road diverges into 70 different paths, now, let’s just hope, we cross paths someday, until then here is to the foodies, the TV show fans, the cricket fans, the Musicians, the Artists, the actors, the book lovers, the debaters, the feminists, the dancers, the photographers, the social media enthusiasts, the late comers, the class rep, the cabinet and council members, the moviemakers, the fashionista’s , the shopaholics, the animal lovers, the coffee lovers, the ice cream lovers, the bakers, the chefs, the problem solvers, the achievers, the entrepreneurs, the designers, the poets, the perfectionists, the squads, the sports stars, the silent ones, the talkative ones, the teacher’s pets, and the irregulars.
We shall all make promises, to meet and just like what it was these three years, those too will have absentees and late comers, but, then we need to realise that those are some of the aspects that did define us and that are a part of us and that every time we meet after college, new memories will be created, reliving old ones. What we shared is a story worth telling for generations, our memories exclusive to us.
With a whole lot waiting ahead of us, let’s just keep one thing in mind, that we always have one another to turn to, in some corner of the world and that is what that matters.
