Right now, you are preparing for your 10th board exams, trying to figure out whether to take science and be with your best friend or listen to your parents and take commerce or listen to your heart and take arts, even you might be making a list of your dream colleges you want to get into, you are feeling nervous about your board exams, will you get your desire percentage, will you get into your dream college and what will be life after school. The combination of nervousness and excitement might take the best out of you or maybe you are luckily among one of those people who go with the flow and don’t stress much about the future. Well, I’m sure you must be curious about how will be life 5 years from now so see me as your future- self-talking to you and hear me out. You have just completed your graduation and have made tons and tons of friends, are a part of various groups and have networked with a lot of smart people, have done a few internships, and are in the middle of deciding on whether to do a master’s or get a job have gained some experience or if you are someone who likes doing things out of the ordinary you might even have started a start-up. After choosing one of these options, after some months, you will realise the tons of friendships you had made during your college days, which you were so proud of, are slowly going to fade and distance away, but here is some good news. Your childhood- school friends are still your best friends and still have got your back. You will gradually realise that no matter how many friends you have in different areas of your life, these 2-3 childhood friends are more than enough to sail through this thing called “life”. You will suddenly respect and value yourself more because you just received your first salary which is quite good. You will also realise that the things which were bothering you at the age of 13 or 15, you probably won’t even remember them or laugh at them, they won’t take so much of your mental energy because till this time you have experienced how beautiful life can be. That best friend of yours who has stopped talking to you or you both have distance from each other, chances are you both are back together or you have got a better friend who loves, respects, and keeps your secrets as her own. If you have some insecurities right now which I’m sure most of us have during our teenage, let me tell you, those 5years of college will shape you into a person who is much more confident, who knows have to balance their flaws, and who flaunts their strengths. People who have hurt you in your teenage chances are they must have apologised for their mistakes but you have already healed yourself from those scars and learned to forgive people who haven’t apologised to you. You will learn that not getting into your dream college is not the end of the world but just the beginning of new options and opportunities. And if you are like how I was as a teenager then trust me life will teach you in its own crazy way how to love, value, and care for yourself. If you’re in your school right now then just wait for life to happen to you, it has so much in store for each one of you, it has so much to teach you and give you that you have no idea about. Just wait to see how breathtakingly beautiful, bright, and full of happiness and learnings life can be. In this journey of life, you will fail at doing a few things, you might even get your heart broken by a few people but in the end, you will be successful at different things, will find better people, and will find hope in love, friendships, and all the good things in the world. Whatever you choose to do now I can assure you that five years from now you will be a better, wiser and smarter, and more mature version of yourself.

By Riya