Take a moment to think back to your days in school; the teacher who had the most impact on you back then, things you’ve learned as you grew, memories and friendships made and cherished, and some playground and classroom stories you share till today. We spent most of our childhood days in school, and yes we may have explored some interesting topics, but no matter how many subjects we learned at school, we were never prepared for life after it.
There are things they never teach us in a classroom, like how you can heal yourself from the first heartbreak or how you are supposed to take care of adult chores and responsibilities. We graduate knowing some stuff about science and math, but we don’t quite know how to maneuver life.
We didn’t learn how to deal with failure. We pushed beyond our limits to ace those A+ grades to keep our parents and teachers happy, and not to be berated in front of our siblings or classmates. We strived so hard for success that one failure fills us with shame. No one told us that failure happens to call us for a change in course of action and that with more trials, we will eventually succeed – if we want to.
We didn’t learn how to deal with grief or loss. Maybe, we didn’t learn about our emotions in general, how to understand them and manage them. We were not told that pain hits harder when we grow up and that our hearts will break in ways we never imagined.
We didn’t learn the value of mistakes. We were in fact, most of the time, punished for them. We felt guilty for every time we made a mistake; little did we know that these mistakes, as we grow older, will become valuable lessons and experiences that will teach us something for the future.
We didn’t learn how to navigate careers. Maybe we learned how to get the highest grades and then automatically go up the academic ladder, but we didn’t know that this is how it works when it comes to our careers. We never thought that working hard doesn’t necessarily take us to leading roles, but working smart is what makes the difference. We didn’t know there is such thing as work politics and that our technical skills alone without social intelligence would take us no wear and limit our chances of growth and success.
We didn’t learn that life isn’t fair. No one told us that we won’t always get what we want and that life can get really tough on us. We weren’t told quite enough that there are a lot of things out of our control, and that there is no way we can trick destiny to work in our favor. We didn’t quite experience injustice, or have to bear the consequence of nepotism or bias. We simply thought life has to always be on our side, like it owes us something.
In short, we were not prepared for life after school; we didn’t know what to expect. We thought our worries wouldn’t grow bigger than exams and grades. We were not told about the responsibilities we'd have to handle or the finances we'd have to manage. We find ourselves in unprecedented situations, ones we had no answer to in any textbook. But then, life teaches us differently one lesson at a time. Yet, those lessons, no matter how tough, are the most valuable, ones that will shape who we are, only when we decide to learn and move on, preparing ourselves better for more to come.
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