At the innocent age of five, I dreamed of becoming a teacher. At the ripe age of ten, I aspired to make it big as a doctor and when fifteen dawned, journalism seemed like the perfect choice. But today, as I stand eighteen years old I realize I am simply becoming what the world always wanted me to become.
Welcome, my dear friends, to a world where you don’t judge and analyze which career is fit for you but instead it is the career which makes the decision whether you are fit for it or not. Welcome indeed to the times where you are not supposed to think or reason but it’s your performance and your grades that takes your decisions for you.
The general perception that’s drilled in the minds of the youth today when faced with a choice has become stereotypical- if you score good grades then science is your thing, if your grade sheet reads average then commerce becomes your calling and if you fall in the category of those who struggle to keep the red ink from spoiling your report card then arts and humanities becomes your only option. No one actually sits to question whether what his true calling actually is but instead prefers to go on and study technology and management and ultimately end up being an author to national bestsellers!
The kind of generation that I am a part of today has sadly lost the ability to think or to question but accepts things for what they are instead of searching for an answer from within. Our thoughts and decisions are so bottled up and constrained by our peers and parents that we fail to look ahead at the larger picture at an early stage instead it is much later in life that one comes to terms with the fact that this was never the place you wanted to be given the first choice. The world expects innovations and change from us but by restricting and channelling our thoughts and decisions, is it possible for us to deliver?
The life that we are living today is synonymous to that of a puppet in control of the pressures of the world. Have you ever stopped for a moment and reflected back on the life that you have lived so far? Pause and analyze an average day of your life. What does it involve? You wake up to the call of the persistently screeching alarm clock, reluctantly get dressed and literally drag yourself to classes and so starts another stereotypical day of your life which may involve pretending to listen to lectures while you are actually texting or gaming on your latest gizmo, trying to present yourself as the most eligible guy in front of the girl you have been crushing on since God-knows-when and chatting with friends on issues ranging from everything to nothing. And this is how each day of life flies by- useless and wasted! Have you ever once sat and thought about the larger goal of your life. Do you see yourself as the person sitting in an office cubicle from 9 to 9 leading the monotonous, mundane life that millions others are living like him, do you see yourself dying the death of just another ordinary man having lived just another ordinary life with no contribution whatsoever to the world at large or instead do you choose to rise from your state of inactiveness and anonymity and take control of your life and start acting towards scripting a life worth lived!
We all have choices. The choice between flowing like a piece of garbage drifting wherever the river current takes it or swimming against the current in the direction of your dreams. The choice between breaking free from the shackles of expectations and restrictions that surround you and taking a stand for yourself or being operated like a remote-controlled machine by the world and keep cribbing about your decisions.
In the rat race that we are running today we all are striving to excel but the question stands that are our efforts being channelized in the right direction or is the career that you are pursuing or the field that you are perspiring in is actually your choice or the decision taken by your parents or your peers. And if the answer is the latter then you seriously need to restructure your life and add to it the meaning that truly defines you, the purpose that adds that meaning to it! So stop for a second, take a deep breath and ask yourself who you really are! Rediscover the person that you are and rise from the person into which the world has moulded you into.Stop existing and start living. Add your own definition to your name, explore your personality and carve a niche for yourself and trust me you will have lived a life well lived!
Asra Yousuf 
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