REMEMBERING THE LESSONS

Aryan was one person whom you would love to have as a friend. He was one of those guys who was always jovial and happy and would always try to make people around him feel the same. He was always cool about what he did and he never let anyone else take up control of his life. Being in school with him, he seemed to be average intelligent guy and always used to manage his studies somehow. But slowly in the last two years of his schooling did he lose control of his life a bit.

By the time he reached college he had lost almost all control of his life and had entered into quite a lot of bad company. He did not change from being a jovial character but he started taking his life too lightly. Someone who once used to be a parent’s good child slowly started considering himself smarter and many a times despised his parents for being ignorant of the college system and started living his life without control. With his company ruining, he started playing around with his career in the first year of college. His friends used to encourage him to bunk college and loiter around saying that the system is too easy and he will clear it without doing any work and in his own high, he accepted the fact and went completely wayward. But his ultimate shock came at the end of his first year which changed his life completely.

Fooling around the whole year, when the time came for filling up the forms for the university exams, he was told that the college authorities have withdrawn his name from appearing in the examinations due to lack of attendance and other university rules. When he came to know about this, the world around him came to a standstill. He realized that the barring a couple of people like him, all his other friends were being allowed to sit in the exams and he was the only one left to repeat the whole year. Trying all he could to get the college authorities to pass his form, they didn’t allow him to appear in the exams. That is when he learned his biggest lesson.

Talking with one of his close friends he said that the journey of life is like a journey in a car, where there come many potholes. He realized that, where some of these potholes are small, some are really big which really affect our journey and can stop us from reaching our destination. And being in this journey, it is our company in the car which also matter, for some may put us in that shit without us even realizing it and in the process ruining us with hardly any problem to them. He realized that when his parents were advising him to go to college, they were his true well wishers and were the ones who really tried to get him out of the hole, whereas the friends who made him loiter and waste time were the ones who actually spoiled him and put him in a bigger mess than he ever was.

Today coping up with his studies and leaving the bad company he had around him, he feels the mistake he did in that period. He had lost one important year of his life and career and all the people around whom he was, had started their professional lives and he being alone making up realized his biggest folly. Being the good ol’ Aryan, he found the company of some of his true old friends and realized what mistake he had done when he lost touch with them. Feeling the change within him, he started accepting the advice given to him by his parents and friends who would push him more towards his career path.

Over the period of time he gained back his parent’s confidence which went crumbling down after the first year fiasco. Seeing the change around him he realized what he had lost and in the process realized how bad things could have gone had he not realized the trouble. Today he relishes being the person he is and wishes he never gets back to the path he once was on.

Dalai Lama once said when you lose, don’t lose the lesson.

Just like Aryan, its important for us to learn and grow from our experiences. We shall always continue our battle in life and we will have many fights in our future. Its not important that we win or lose but what matters is whether we learn from our mistakes or not. Aryan realized that he had made a blunder but because of his conscious realization and the company around him he was able to recover in time. But then, haven’t we seen many a people like Aryan lose track of their life and are never able to recover?! The positive for Aryan was that he learnt his lesson in time but all of us may not be so fortunate. Its important for everyone of us to understand when we make mistakes in the present time or else we may not be so fortunate.

Our chief wisdom consists in knowing our follies and faults, so that we may correct them.

-Author Unknown-