Sunday 28 June 2015

The Burden of Great Expectations

To be or not to be - that is the question I asked myself when faced with the prospect of studying law a few years back.

It was a tough question, one I could not take lightly. To study for another five years, to study something else or to start working immediately after my graduation, these were the A-B-C options I had. I took the second option. I decided to study journalism.

My choice was a disappointment for many and a surprising move for others. But I had made it nonetheless.

Now, after two years, at the cusp of my post graduation degree and after the submission of my thesis on ‘Conflict Reportage in Indian English Newspapers’ I am finally sure that I indeed made the right choice.

However, now that I’ll be going out into the real world, I realize that the expectations of all those people who supported me as well as those who were skeptical of my choice are entirely too much. Over time, people have come to expect great things from those who complete their ‘Masters’ degree and the case is the same here.

I’m expected to get selected into a large firm, get a respectable position and draw a salary that an HR would choke on before doling it out to a fresher. Great expectations!

Image Courtesy: wordsmith.com

Confidence in a person’s ability is great, but turning this person into Atlas by tossing him a world of expectations and saying, “Catch!” well that’s not cool. Time and experience is what takes someone to great heights and erecting an unreal pedestal before that helps nobody.

Hence, all you impertinent parents and teachers and friends and relatives, calm down.


It will happen… in Time.

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