Guess every individual goes through this phase of life, some learn it fast, some learn it the hard way and some never learns. Out of the three, I wish I had the luxury of learning fast. Well!! In a way I am happy that at least I am learning it the hard way than never learning at all.
Learning what? "The Real World"
I just hit my quarter century couple of months back. I was a student till 1.5 yrs back. There was No issues, no politics, no boredoms, no stereo typical life, blah blah blah. But its totally different nowadays. Facing politics day in and day out, insecurity regarding the future, frustration with few relationships, stereo typical life, ..what not..Now I know why they call this phase as "QUARTER LIFE CRISIS"
Heaven
The world we know as a student was a heaven. Almost all of them (Either it be Relatives or family friends or neighbors or friends) saw us as a carefree kid/young guy and treated us the same..there was absolutely no discrimination because of wealth, family, position, background,...of course the ones who were smart had the respect of all but that too not to an excessive degree. So as I said before, we never encountered politics or issues between us. We were graded in school so we knew where we stood and we got performance feedbacks then and there. Needed no politics to survive, never read people, no big thoughts about consequences for every action taken.
Real World - a Mystery
The Post-academic life is full of twists and turns and emotional ups and downs of adolescence.Now I am learning the real meaning of some interesting words - Honor, Prestige, Status, Esteem,... I see lots and lots of character changes at different branches of my relationships. This includes relatives, friends, colleagues et all.It was shocking to see some of them acting completely different from how they were a yr and a half ago. Nowadays I waste lots of time reevaluating interpersonal relationships. People change so fast that I scarcely seem to know them at times.
Unlike Academic life, we don't get performance feedbacks all the time. No one gives honest opinions. To survive all these politics, one should be good in interpersonal skills. Politics is not the only one which is new to me. There are many more to add to it, kinda loneliness, adapting to stereotypical boring jobs, thought about unestablished ambitions and so on..... As of now, I haven't taken giant steps but taken some firm steps for sure and continuing to proceed on my path of learning these confusing social skills to become a better man. It looks like a pretty long walk but its interesting as well as frustrating at times.
Yes, it kinda sucks!! But "Better learn now than never"
A Long Walk!!!
