attitude... the best friend one can have, or the worst enemy one could fear...
back in the days when i used to be in grad-school, i had a tremendous experience of meeting kids from various backgrounds... some would think they are kings and queens of the world, some would think they are the greatest losers to have ended up in grad-skool in the first place... there were a bunch of them, whose attitude i could never forget or bear... it was the first week there that semester, and the international students association had organized a welcome party for all incoming students... while we were all in the process of meeting fellow students, there was this bunch standing in a corner... they were literally discussing the last names of students, and their regional/cultural/religious origins, basically mocking at atleast one of those things... though i meant to go right at them and bash them up, i realized that we are all educated to behave in cultured ways, and dissent is reserved for brutes...
as far as the school, it was a great place for getting an education... a calm, peaceful college town... the place itself was not buzzing with party-activities as such, but campus events kept the atmosphere quite happening... time and again, i would meet students who would basically crib that the place is dead, and is not as happening as their home-city (a Mumbai, or an NYC)... Despite coming from a reasonably big city (Chennai) myself, I neither had the time nor the energy to crib and be frustrated about it... Infact I only enjoyed the calm and the peace of such a learning paradise...
it is a matter of mind, most problems are... especially when we constantly complain of things that we do not have, while failing to appreciate the wonderful things that we DO have around us... how many times in a day do we actually realize that somewhere in a developing country, the money we just spent on a cappucino would have been sufficient for an entire meal's cost? or, how many times in a day do we actually do the right things, even if trivial? like being judicious with electricity or water usage or not driving a fuel-gulping-SUV?
one of my most favourite slogans... "attitude is everything" - sums it up... the truth is out there... but alas, the horse can only be taken up to the lake... to drink it up though, the horse is on its own... the will, leads the way!
back in the days when i used to be in grad-school, i had a tremendous experience of meeting kids from various backgrounds... some would think they are kings and queens of the world, some would think they are the greatest losers to have ended up in grad-skool in the first place... there were a bunch of them, whose attitude i could never forget or bear... it was the first week there that semester, and the international students association had organized a welcome party for all incoming students... while we were all in the process of meeting fellow students, there was this bunch standing in a corner... they were literally discussing the last names of students, and their regional/cultural/religious origins, basically mocking at atleast one of those things... though i meant to go right at them and bash them up, i realized that we are all educated to behave in cultured ways, and dissent is reserved for brutes...
as far as the school, it was a great place for getting an education... a calm, peaceful college town... the place itself was not buzzing with party-activities as such, but campus events kept the atmosphere quite happening... time and again, i would meet students who would basically crib that the place is dead, and is not as happening as their home-city (a Mumbai, or an NYC)... Despite coming from a reasonably big city (Chennai) myself, I neither had the time nor the energy to crib and be frustrated about it... Infact I only enjoyed the calm and the peace of such a learning paradise...
it is a matter of mind, most problems are... especially when we constantly complain of things that we do not have, while failing to appreciate the wonderful things that we DO have around us... how many times in a day do we actually realize that somewhere in a developing country, the money we just spent on a cappucino would have been sufficient for an entire meal's cost? or, how many times in a day do we actually do the right things, even if trivial? like being judicious with electricity or water usage or not driving a fuel-gulping-SUV?
one of my most favourite slogans... "attitude is everything" - sums it up... the truth is out there... but alas, the horse can only be taken up to the lake... to drink it up though, the horse is on its own... the will, leads the way!
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