“REWIND”

“College is the place where a child enters and a man exits.” Goodevening ladies and gentlemen, today I stand before you to speak about the experiences of my life in Amity.

When I first came to college I was still a kid; gullible, naive and immature. I won’t say I have learned everything now but I have matured over time. Knowing different people, handling various situations are few things that have done wonders. On the first day of my college I was scared, scared of getting ragged by seniors, scared of interacting with officials and definitely scared of mixing up with my new to be friends. Very few students were interacting with everyone. All of us had found one friend, the first one we met and formed our little temporary groups. For few weeks it went like that. But as time went we made friends with people we still hang out with. The first semester most of the students especially myself were trying to impress fellow students, faculty and our parents by studying too hard and getting highest pointers. The idea was to set our image as a person to be taken as a serious competition. However, when the first semester result came out many had a change of mind. Bunking classes, making excuse to professors for attendance started in second semester. I with most of my classmates, except for front row students started enjoying our college lives. This was unavoidably followed by fall in our pointers. To most of the students back papers were introduced in first semester itself, but I managed to pass all my subjects in the first year. In the second year however, when people were getting serious about their studies I got my first back papers. My result saw a downturn and it didn’t look back till the third year. In fourth year though, after getting a good series of scoldings from my parents I decided to take things seriously and cleared two out of three of my backs. I started catching up to the seven pointer mark set up by most of the companies coming for campus placements. The work is still in process.

Apart from academic fluctuations, psychological fluctuations were a major feature of my college life. I had always been a scholar and my parents raised me and my sister to be content with everything we have in life. But after coming to college a major change in my ideologies took place. It was for the very first time that I saw so many students coming in high end luxury cars to college. Audis, BMWs, Mercedes’ were more common in college than in any other major mall parking. A materialistic view of life set up in the minds of many students, I was one of those gullible students. Competition among friends and fellow college students started. Instead of competing in pointers, who was coming in a bigger car and who was carrying a better phone became our topic of concern. Hanging out at lounges and buying clothes marketed by illustrious and expensive brands diverted our minds from studies. This was the primary reason for my fall in pointers. Now when I look back at things I would usually occupy my mind with I feel terribly sorry and embarrassed for myself. With the placements approaching I do miss the time lost in unconstructive activities. But as they say, experiences are a very important part of learning and if you are learning from your mistakes then the mistakes are not mistakes anymore.

These last four years I spent in Amity have been a great teacher to me. I learnt the importance of keeping the right company, I learnt to let go of things and most importantly I learnt to have patience. With that note I would like to thank all of you for patiently listening to me.

Have a nice evening everyone.

SANDARBH RANA

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