Infinite Possibilities, Lost and Found!

At times I have carried contempt for celebration of the past. I never appreciated anniversaries and the end of an era; I wouldn’t believe that they are times to reminisce, recall, relish or even recognize as moments of importance. It might have spurred from my contempt of clichés and unsavory romanticism. As we head towards the end of this decade, a change in perception is in order; maybe just for a little while. The decade of ends and beginnings, as I see it, seems the most important one for my generation.

When I was a young boy, I believed in infinite possibilities. That every dream I had, every desire, however distant and impractical, could be achieved one day. Greatness was the destination, grandeur was the path. I was told I could be anything I wanted. I saw it in “The Wonder Years” of my life that I had the potential. When asked what I’d be when I grew up, I’d recite a list of things including a star basketball player, a celebrated writer, a Nobel Prize winning scientist, and all those in a single lifetime. Possibilities were infinite; dreams were closer to reality than ever. Then I read Einstein’s quote on how only two things, the Universe and human stupidity, are infinite and he was not even sure about the former. I think that was the day I realized I would not be a part of the only known infinite aspect. I streamlined my aspirations. I succumbed to the pressures of growing up. I was not in High School anymore.

College is where most people try to find themselves. College is where people earn an education, a leeway before the rest of their lives. For some, college is where they fall in love for the first time, where they get their hearts broken for the first time. It is a rather gray world where you are never right and yet not wrong. In some sense, college was just the continuation of adolescence with a hint of responsibility and a learning beyond education thrown in. Learning that life is not mere dreams and aspirations; learning that possibilities are finite and grandeur lies in doing the best in spite of limitations. Greatness was not a goal anymore; it was a reward for the grace in overcoming the strife. Despite all these great things, it was a place for the ends as much as the place for the beginnings. Fortunately, we are still too young to grieve those ends and old enough to accept them and move on.

Most people took up their first jobs after college and ventured into life; some earning their living, some helping others with their life, a few in it just for the experience and then some still clueless about what they were getting out of it. Life is not just about jobs. We gave serious thought to the bonds we forged, the relationships we grew into and the society playing a part in shaping our lives. We queried whether we were on the right track, fought to get back on it, sometimes compromised to fight our battles on a better day. We were made aware of the consequences. The world ceased to be gray and took tones of black and white to aspire our motives’ ends. We had come a long way from carefree lives to learning our responsibilities and then facing consequences. Some have learnt the art better than others and some are yet to come to terms with it.

As we approach, what is now being called, a “quarter life crisis”, it is time for us to take stock and make note of the many challenges we have faced thus far. We have approached the end of a decade, and not just according to the Gregorian calendar, but the ten years that we evolved the most. The last ten years for people of my generation has been marked by many challenges, many victories and many losses; it is, however, time to reminisce the lessons from all those, the lessons which would help us shape the rest of our lives and the memories that will light up a smile or bring a tear in our eyes on a distant day in the future. 

I still play basketball, I still love to write and I'm still working towards becoming a "Scientist"; only the false aspirations of grandeur is gone.The possibilities are still infinite; we cannot achieve them all, but we can still do the best we can.