{"id":574,"date":"2016-08-11T05:46:39","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T05:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/?p=574"},"modified":"2019-11-20T11:29:55","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T11:29:55","slug":"of-board-exams-percentages-and-despondency-by-hedwig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/2016\/08\/11\/of-board-exams-percentages-and-despondency-by-hedwig\/","title":{"rendered":"Of Board Exams, Percentages and Despondency &#8211; by Hedwig"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/tumblr_inline_obv6w4zx5F1un32nx_1280-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"575\" data-link=\"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/?attachment_id=575\" class=\"wp-image-575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/tumblr_inline_obv6w4zx5F1un32nx_1280-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/tumblr_inline_obv6w4zx5F1un32nx_1280-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/tumblr_inline_obv6w4zx5F1un32nx_1280-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/tumblr_inline_obv6w4zx5F1un32nx_1280.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Board Exam results were announced not too long ago, and, as always, they have incited as many reactions as possible. I personally have counted 3 instances of fainting, 5 instances of applying to an engineering college, one instance of destroying the computer, and 10 instances of \u2018My-Life-Can-Go-Nowhere-Now\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As much as your parents, grandparents, extended family, cousin twice-removed and your family pet may stress on the importance of the Board Exams, the truth is that those Facebook statuses put up by your seniors are right \u2013 The Board Exam results really do not matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, anything less than a 95% means that there are slim chances of getting into Engineering or into Medicine, but those two subjects are hardly the be all and end all of education. The fact that you\u2019re here, reading this, is testimony enough that students can and should think of \u2018out-of-the-box\u2019 opportunities if that\u2019s what interests them. I, too, had to experience (See also: Suffer) 14 years of the Indian education system and I too almost fainted shouting \u2018Hai Ram\u2019 with my hand on my forehead when I checked my Board results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And let me outline the catastrophe that ensued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I cried for a little, tried not to open my Facebook feed and, when I did anyway, I specifically ignored the \u201cOMG 97%???!! I would like to thank my parents, my sister, my pet Raven that died 10 years ago and God for this!!\u201d statuses. And now I\u2019m here in a college that could not have an environment more conducive for learning with some of the best Professors to interact with and having made some firm friendships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may be thinking \u2013 \u2018She calls this a catastrophe?\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No, I don\u2019t. The point is that there was no catastrophe. These marks are no more than a sheet of paper (Or a computer screen. Yay for 21st Century advancements) with some numbers on them and you are more than a sheet of paper, my friend. You are blood, bone, skin and skull and you will be more than what this system says you can be. You have the world in your eyes, oxygen in your lungs and with just who you are, you can do so much more than you think you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019re reading this and thinking that you don\u2019t need this harsh truth because it\u2019s mere mollycoddling and because you\u2019ve gotten the requisite 99.99%, you\u2019re wrong. Take pride in your achievement, but don\u2019t stop growing. And when you do grow, you\u2019ll realize that your marks can never be a valid measure of who you are. Expand, explore and build satellites on all the universes taking root inside you. There will be moments in your life where you will pause to realize how happy you are. Keep them inside your pockets and count them every time you forget that there can and will be more such moments; dig your fingers through the ever-increasing pile, pick a moment, and stare at it until tears flow freely from your eyes from all the laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep your head held high, your chin straight and your shoulders steady. Let the wind scatter the pieces of paper, or the parts of your destroyed computer screen. Your success lies in how much you grow, and to grow, you just have to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And, as Vladimir Nobokov said, \u201cThe rest is rust and stardust\u201d.<a href=\"https:\/\/jindalstudentcorner.tumblr.com\/tagged\/JGU\">JGU<\/a><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Board Exam results were announced not too long ago, and, as always, they have incited as many reactions as possible. I personally have counted 3 instances of fainting, 5 instances of applying to an engineering college, one instance of destroying the computer, and 10 instances of \u2018My-Life-Can-Go-Nowhere-Now\u2019. Stop. As <a href=\"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/2016\/08\/11\/of-board-exams-percentages-and-despondency-by-hedwig\/\" class=\"btn btn-link continue-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corner"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":576,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions\/576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jgu.edu.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}