A dream that turned into reality
You have to dream before your dreams can come true. -APJ Abdul Kalam
Two years ago I had the choice to be a sheep and be part of the herd. I brought out the rebel side of me and told my parents, teachers and everyone else that I want to live by my own directions and I want to take up the arts stream. And today I can say that I successfully managed to swim in an excessively upstream body.
The boards were the toughest part of it all and I managed to sail through it. There were nights where I just broke down and wanted to run away. Everyday I woke up and even though I told myself that a new day meant a new beginning, by the evening I wanted to give up. I am not just talking about giving up on studies but on everything. It was difficult to keep up. I knew that I was not alone in this ride but somehow I always felt I am the only one who is suffering from this ordeal. But I somehow kept going. Everyday I told myself just one more day. I tackled the boards one day at a time or as my father always says one step at a time.
Unlike everyone else, I was very relaxed about the dooms day because I assumed of course that I am not going to hit the mark anyway. But just like everyone else I was anxious and just wanted to get over with it. But 28th May turned the tables upon me. Where I feared that in the worst case I may not even touch a good 90%, the best of four score turned out to be a whooping 96.75% and overall (thanks to economics) I got 93% with cent percent marks in history and a 97 in psychology.
My mother dwelling in the surreal world went into happy kind of denial for a long time. I wanted to cry but I really lack tears especially for a moment like this. The first logical thing that I could think of doing was a chicken dance. Then I had calls to make, calls to take. It was not long before the school put up on its website the list of toppers in their respective streams and subjects. Guess who made it to the list? My name was included as one of the stream toppers and as subject toppers in history and English including others. It's sad that I missed the cake cutting ceremony in my school but I got to have my own mini ceremony in Pune. I guess, that in itself was an indicator that the celebrations has just begun.
On 2nd June at 6.26pm I got a mail from Ashoka University telling me that they were very pleased to offer me a seat in their Undergraduate programme. Being ecstatic was an understatement. This was a dream come true. Someone has rightly said, "Sometimes your heart needs more time to accept what your mind already knows". I had been dreaming about this place ever since I first got to hear about it in class 9 or maybe 10, more so after the Young Scholars Programme at Ashoka last year. Ashoka being Ashoka, it was not a cakewalk to get in. It had its own limits which for me were higher than my capabilities. I realised I can not walk all the way up to there, the path was too steep. So I grew wings and learned to fly.
All those who were part of my journey and to all those who left, Thank you for being there. Thank you for guiding me and for being my torch light when I was in the dark. Words may never be enough to describe what I feel right now. It is almost scary to think that this is actually just a dream and I may wake up and have nothing with me at all. But maybe it is not. Maybe the fine line between dreams and reality have merged this time.
A shout out to all these people especially :
1. Parents - They are the most abnormal set of parents in my opinion. For one they refused to give up on me. They told me marks don't matter now and marks won't matter then. They told me even if i got 75% on my mark sheet and I go to one of the average colleges, they will take me for who I am rather how i was defined by the crooked system that we unfortunately are a part of. They told me that the whole board season. maybe that kept me going. Their amount of craziness combined was more than what I could bargain for. I worked hard. I pushed myself but I never realised a little more hard work could go such along way.
2. Kavya, Tarushi, Prerna - What would I have done without you guys? Despite your own stresses you took mine and told me that you'll always love me no matter what. For all the times I could feel myself breaking you were there.
3. Prof. Michel Danino - I owe Ashoka to you. I think you have been the most influential person in my life. You made me realise that the world is too big to be looked at from a narrow perspective. You made me fall in love with history and people. You brought out the one thing within me that really is starting to take me places.
4. Sudhir uncle, Shikha aunty, Vineeta aunty - Thankfully you don't fit in the stereotype of annoying elders. You were confident of my maneuvers even when neither me nor my parents were as much. You are cool people.
Two years ago I had the choice to be a sheep and be part of the herd. I brought out the rebel side of me and told my parents, teachers and everyone else that I want to live by my own directions and I want to take up the arts stream. And today I can say that I successfully managed to swim in an excessively upstream body.
The boards were the toughest part of it all and I managed to sail through it. There were nights where I just broke down and wanted to run away. Everyday I woke up and even though I told myself that a new day meant a new beginning, by the evening I wanted to give up. I am not just talking about giving up on studies but on everything. It was difficult to keep up. I knew that I was not alone in this ride but somehow I always felt I am the only one who is suffering from this ordeal. But I somehow kept going. Everyday I told myself just one more day. I tackled the boards one day at a time or as my father always says one step at a time.
Unlike everyone else, I was very relaxed about the dooms day because I assumed of course that I am not going to hit the mark anyway. But just like everyone else I was anxious and just wanted to get over with it. But 28th May turned the tables upon me. Where I feared that in the worst case I may not even touch a good 90%, the best of four score turned out to be a whooping 96.75% and overall (thanks to economics) I got 93% with cent percent marks in history and a 97 in psychology.
My mother dwelling in the surreal world went into happy kind of denial for a long time. I wanted to cry but I really lack tears especially for a moment like this. The first logical thing that I could think of doing was a chicken dance. Then I had calls to make, calls to take. It was not long before the school put up on its website the list of toppers in their respective streams and subjects. Guess who made it to the list? My name was included as one of the stream toppers and as subject toppers in history and English including others. It's sad that I missed the cake cutting ceremony in my school but I got to have my own mini ceremony in Pune. I guess, that in itself was an indicator that the celebrations has just begun.
On 2nd June at 6.26pm I got a mail from Ashoka University telling me that they were very pleased to offer me a seat in their Undergraduate programme. Being ecstatic was an understatement. This was a dream come true. Someone has rightly said, "Sometimes your heart needs more time to accept what your mind already knows". I had been dreaming about this place ever since I first got to hear about it in class 9 or maybe 10, more so after the Young Scholars Programme at Ashoka last year. Ashoka being Ashoka, it was not a cakewalk to get in. It had its own limits which for me were higher than my capabilities. I realised I can not walk all the way up to there, the path was too steep. So I grew wings and learned to fly.
All those who were part of my journey and to all those who left, Thank you for being there. Thank you for guiding me and for being my torch light when I was in the dark. Words may never be enough to describe what I feel right now. It is almost scary to think that this is actually just a dream and I may wake up and have nothing with me at all. But maybe it is not. Maybe the fine line between dreams and reality have merged this time.
A shout out to all these people especially :
1. Parents - They are the most abnormal set of parents in my opinion. For one they refused to give up on me. They told me marks don't matter now and marks won't matter then. They told me even if i got 75% on my mark sheet and I go to one of the average colleges, they will take me for who I am rather how i was defined by the crooked system that we unfortunately are a part of. They told me that the whole board season. maybe that kept me going. Their amount of craziness combined was more than what I could bargain for. I worked hard. I pushed myself but I never realised a little more hard work could go such along way.
2. Kavya, Tarushi, Prerna - What would I have done without you guys? Despite your own stresses you took mine and told me that you'll always love me no matter what. For all the times I could feel myself breaking you were there.
3. Prof. Michel Danino - I owe Ashoka to you. I think you have been the most influential person in my life. You made me realise that the world is too big to be looked at from a narrow perspective. You made me fall in love with history and people. You brought out the one thing within me that really is starting to take me places.
4. Sudhir uncle, Shikha aunty, Vineeta aunty - Thankfully you don't fit in the stereotype of annoying elders. You were confident of my maneuvers even when neither me nor my parents were as much. You are cool people.
You have to dream before your dreams can come true.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_dreams.html
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_dreams.html
You have to dream before your dreams can come true.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_dreams.html
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_dreams.html
You have to dream before your dreams can come true.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_dreams.html
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_dreams.html
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