IS THIS LIFE A LINEAR EQUATION?
Many of us when we set-off for
school are sure to receive the age-long advice-study hard in school and you
would realize your dreams. Is this entirely true? We watch movies and when two
people get married at the end, the story ends with “and they lived happily ever
after”. Again is that always the case?
If life was as simple as purported by these assertions then life would just be
a linear equation. Study hard= do well in life. Get married=live happily ever
after. These assertions however fly in the face of reality. You and I have
lived in this world long enough to know that things do not always happen that
way.
It is unfortunate we do not talk
about these things. It is unfortunate that we are not taught to know that life
is not a straight road. Linear equations are quite easy to solve but if you
asked me, life is a very complex equation that no mortal mathematician—not even
Archimedes can work out with certainty. Life is not 1+1=2. Rather life is 1+1=
erm. Wait I have to add 5, multiply by 0.3, divide by 1000 and then wait for
further variables. That is how life is, not just unpredictable but sometimes
difficult to understand.
The probability experts would
tell us that, those who do well in academia are likely to become successful people
in future. Some people naively replace
that economizing phrase “are likely” with an elusive phrase “will always”. The
world is full of people who failed their exams or got expelled from school who
are doing great things in this world. Bill Gates of Microsoft, Walt Disney, Simon
Cowel of X-factor, the list goes on and on.
We see celebrities on T. V
smiling away to the cameras and we are like—wow, I would like to be like that.
Yet we know next to nothing about what happens when they go back home from the
red carpet and enter their closets. I tell
you, it is not all that glitters that is gold.
It pains me when people compare themselves to
others and sentence themselves to unworthiness. As I said, move closer to the
so called successful people and you would be shocked to find out that some of
them wished they were just like you. You are unique, created to face unique
challenges, created to get unique opportunities. You are the only one that is exactly the same
as you.
Instead of expecting life to work like a
linear equation, rather ready yourself for unexpected turns and twists. We all hope for the best but we also have to
prepare ourselves for the unexpected. We have to prepare ourselves for the disappointments,
for the better opportunities etc. that will definitely spring up in our lives. However,
there is light at the end of the tunnel. Of course you cannot do anything about
how life would turn out by your own strength. There is hope if you know this
simple fact. Yes! Just know and accept that life is not a linear equation. That
way, when things do not turn out the way you planned them to, you would not spend
your precious time brooding over spilled milk.