[For reference, you can check out ‘Lies We’ve Been Told‘ if you want to understand what this post is going to be about.]
Tomorrow, my brother is supposed to appear for one of the biggest exams ever. And even though he isn’t letting it show on the outside, I can tell that he is freaking out because he is worried, not about how it’s going to go, but how our parents may react to the results that are supposed to come out at the end of the month. It’s not like he won’t get a chance to appear for the same exams once again, but I can tell that it’s still affecting him.
It’s so easy to say things like ‘If you’ve prepared well, there is nothing to worry about,’ but as it happens, that sentence has proven to be one of the biggest and boldest lies that I have ever been told. I’ve been one of those students who study one night before the exam (or in the case of English papers, the day of). I don’t think it ever made a difference to my grades, which I can assure you were really good.
Now, this might just be me talking, but I have always felt as though we focus too much on the grades we receive at the end of our semesters rather than focusing on what we have actually learned. I’ve said this before and I’ll say this again, but your grades do not define what you’ve learned, and they most certainly do not define the kind of person you’ll be and the kind of skills you’ll pick up during your life.
Education is more than just about how much we can memorise and recreate on the piece of paper in front of us under a very short deadline. It should be more about the kind of value it adds to our lives. I know people who studied from the same textbooks as I did not even remember the names of some of the most prominent cities in our own country. And these are the kids who scored pretty well, just by the way.
I wouldn’t know how my brother or anybody else who is going to appear for this exam tomorrow is going to perform or rank. But I do want to put this out here that we need to stop judging youngsters by their grades or even the stream they choose to major in. Some of the most “successful” people in the world are absolutely despicable examples for human beings. Neither their grades nor their numerous degrees change the fact that they aren’t very good people.
Just this afternoon, I saw somebody trolling a person online for the lack of their collegiate degrees. That’s when I also came across an argument saying that academic achievements often age to mean nothing when the person in question is full of talent and virtue. The very fact that people still use bookish education as a reason to insult others shows how flawed we are in judging fellow human beings. This whole superiority based on how many A+’s we have scored in our lifetime is simply snobbish and disgusting.
Here’s the truth for those of you who still want to live in denial: there is more than just one road to success, and there are numerous kinds of things to be successful in. Education may or may not have something to do with it, but that solely depends upon the person in question. The number of hours a person has spent to burn themselves out like a candle does not determine how successful a person is going to be either.
It’s time we started looking at people for who they really are on the inside. I hate to break this to you but most things you see on the surface are just a farce; there is so much more to people than that. Learn to look deeper.
Cheerio! Xx
Hey guys! I hope you liked this post. Let me know in the comments below or share with someone you might wanna show this to! You can also reach out to me and say ‘Hi’ on Twitter and Instagram. I’ll look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,
The Shubhster.
Featured Image by Debby Hudson on Unsplash
The Shubhster Diaries 
Leave a Reply