There will be times when the world won’t make much sense to you. You’ll rather feel inferior, powerless, and pushed to follow whats next. You might feel you’re engaging in something that is either very time consuming or uninteresting, but as long as you keep up with it, it might be worth it after all. Remember high school ? you were confident you’ll be game changer and be able to live your dreams in no time. You were bound by the same schooling system like everyone else but you had faith in yourself. This faith and confidence was partly governed by your enthusiasm and dedication to go above and beyond everything. For me, it was majorly due to the hope in the eyes of my parents, teachers, peers, and the thirst to move on to a better next – although I had little idea of what I’ll end up doing in college. Our stories are maybe similar, maybe not, but we all went through similar phases in order to land to the next phase of life – formal and higher education. Between this transition, its common to take the so called standardized tests that test your IQ and verbal/reading skills. After that, you’re just a number on the paper. And this shall also reflect onto bigger things. We live in a world where numbers reflect the true potential of entities – be it an individual or business. I’m not so fond of that. If X got 1600s on the SAT, how would you perceive X ? Is he just a number ? The depth of humanity and individuality is much more than a number that might constantly vary over time. Anyway, it doesn’t matter what your views are on this, you had to take the standardized tests to apply to institutions. And then we all somehow manage to get admitted at a decent place – which might not be on our so called ‘dream league’ list. 4-6 more years of formal education that is awaiting. This is the time you really grow, establish your connections, grow your network, be good at the field you are inclined towards. More than the content, it all boils down to whether you can figure out a problem using the tools that you’re presented with in order to come to a measurable solution/impact. This is all fine. Now, lets talk about what I started the article with. There will be times when the world doesn’t make much sense, you feel defeated, lack motivation, and stress out. These are the times you won’t prolly forget. Growth isn’t justified by just pleasant or normal experiences which don’t move you enough, rather amplified by failures and the determination to pick yourself up again. Don’t just keep cutting trees day by day and realize you’re losing your strength, maybe pause for a while and sharpen your axe. This is exactly what you should do to move on from such feelings. Otherwise, you will just get lost in a puddle of thoughts that won’t make you feel great about anything surrounding you – getting closer to depression. I know life becomes harder after graduation – school is structured and rather ‘easy’. Life is NP Complete – there’s no efficient way to get better. You just constantly have to re-invent yourself, try different tactics when one doesn’t work and keep moving – after all a bad plan is better than no plan. But, don’t get stuck in something that doesn’t make you feel valued anymore – break out from it, take risks and venture out till you find something that syncs with your passion. Every person in this world, no matter what his number is on the paper, adds a potential value to the whole of humanity. You truly have to find what value you’d like to add. Do it with a passion, and you won’t feel lost anymore. Go do it now !