I finished with the following line a year back on 2015,
April 2 on my post titled Joie De Vivre.
“Now I, the writer of this post, is standing after previous line in life, in reality.
If I'm still writing
after four years, maybe I'll tell you what happens after this.”
When I wrote this post I hoped to come back after 4 years
only. I thought 4 years would be an appropriate time interval for some significant
changes to take place, I thought nothing much would change for at least a year
or two.
Wow, I’ve never been so wrong in my life.
That ‘wow’ is merely an understatement of the changes that
have taken place.
The next 12 months we’re a roller coaster of changes,
paradigm shifts, ideal revolutions and transformations that would hopefully
serve as a launch pad for greater life.
The Job Quest
After the exams you’d have a 2-month buffer period to stretch
out a bit.
People who have been already placed in begin their months
long wait, looking at their mailboxes and post-box every now and then.
Those haven’t, begin their hunt for job.
(note: I won’t be writing about people who are pursuing a
post graduate degree since I have no means to know what they experience. Hope
you people do well.)
Hunting for a job is one of the most eye-opening experiences
in your life. You might’ve been one of the most admired seniors of your
juniors, or one of the most respected student in your class. None of that
matters. You’re a person who finished his degree and waiting to get placed and
at the company’s mercy. You’re basically an unemployed person. Depending on
your major you’d want to choose your IT company, and- oh yeah core jobs are a
dream for many, even If you get one, the pay would make you cringe.
Those who got a good paying core job, bless you.
People who are fortunate to get a job within a few weeks of
results have been spared of the chagrin and dismay of being unemployed.
Those who we’re unfortunate enough not to get a job within
the first 6 months are put through 7 circles of unemployment hell. Opprobrious
words will be heard and disgrace will fall upon you slowly. Most parents
support you but you will be eye-candy for your relatives. They will pick you
apart in functions and through phone calls, which will start reflecting in your
parent’s face over time. You can’t blame them though. After going through so
many pitfalls and breaking multiple barriers you end up in a job eventually.
In between, there are people like me. We have tried our hand
at everything. Post graduate preparations, actions for abroad studies, start-up
efforts, thoughts to shun the degree and follow passion and more.
(note: I prepared for Local and Abroad post graduate
degrees, succeeded in achieving a good score for the local PG but left to do a
job in IT. I also had thoughts of doing a degree for my passion, but hey, life
happens)
If you believe that your life is set, then you’re in for a
big surprise.
Welcome to real life –
The job-honeymoon chunk.
This part is the best part of any job, the first 2
months. It will a different kind of joy
when you receive your first salary. One of those Goundamani dialogues flashes
past in my mind’s eye. Well yes you do feel like buying everything you see. You
gift parents, even your siblings. You feel like someone attached a pair of
wings and added in a jetpack. You meet, greet and treat all your friends.
You’ll love your job; you’ll always be talking about it. You’ll
love everybody in the job, your colleagues would be the coolest people you know.
The days would seem like a scene out of a spring day in cartoons with all the
slow motion singing, flowers blooming and stuff.
The first 2 months of job would go in a bliss of joy. Salaries would be totally emptied on stuff
you wished to buy for a long time. You hope to find all those relatives and ask
them to shove it—uh no. Life will be fun.
Welcome to real life
– The sledge hammer.
Why have I named this part The sledge hammer?
Kevin spacey says this to the protagonist in a movie, “Wanting
people to listen, you can't just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to
hit them with a sledgehammer, and then you'll notice you've got their strict
attention.”
This is exactly what life does to you. Life begins to show
its true colours right when you begin college, if you had learnt the knacks and
the tricks of life, you’re somewhat safe from its unexpected smack downs. But
keep on ignoring the signs and symbols, the fact that life is not a nice person
will hit you harder than you imagine. A normal day might end up very differently.
This one day can break the person that you’re. This one day is your sledge
hammer.
You never know what will happen, you simply might’ve been
not able to reply a text to your best friend since you we’re in office caught
up in work. He or she might think that you have changed you don’t need them
anymore, while the truth is otherwise, a month later you’d start noticing your
friend doesn’t talk to you anymore, yeah it takes a month to notice, by then
all is done. Relationships break in a matter of few minutes.
There is one other thing that you’ll realize, politics is
real, very real. Not only in office but also in real life. However noble you
might be you will be pulled into this cesspool and asked to be a part of it,
wait, you will be forced to be a part of it.
By this time waking up every day and pushing yourself to
work would be strenuous task. The weight of life begins to fall upon you.
Parents would start noticing your change in behaviour or
character and start questioning you and you vice versa, and now with a job behind
your back you have the grit to talk back and spill-out some toxic words.
(note: Try to be very careful during these times, a small
word can set off a storm inside your home, my kind suggestions are that you
bite your tongue and hold it down. Also communicate more during this stage,
that helps a bit.)
Slowly day by day work would get hold of you and the little things
you enjoyed doing so much like hanging out with your people or reading a book
or even watching a TV show will begin to decrease.
You’re not too immature to let go of your job or you don’t
have anywhere else to go.
You know you have Endure this.
The fallout.
Sledge hammer’s effect doesn’t stop there. It ends up screwing
your whole system you’ve struggled to setup so many years.
(Note: I really hope parents would stop telling their
children that after 12th it will all be great, after college no one
will question you, you will have full freedom when you have a job-No! This has
to stop, future parents, please tell your child how it will be actually and don’t
enforce your wishes upon them.)
The job’s system begins to eat into your health, fitness,
hobbies, relationships and more.
The first apparent consequence would be broken and
misunderstood friendships. Once the texts used to run till 3 in the morning not
its stopped at ‘good morning’ and seen. Almost all your friends are working and
busy. Yes, they’re busy with their job, but our minds and hearts choose to
ignore this. Imaginations run wild and
friendships break, the break up too isn’t so elegant, Facebook and WhatsApp statuses
are your proof for that. This isn’t something
you’d have expected from your friend or vice versa. A small communication and
this all could’ve been avoided, but life’s a bitch isn’t it?
Next one would affect you more personally- your health.
People will start noticing your change of shape be it
increasing or decreasing, you will be noticed for this. People will start making
comments about how you’re beginning to change, even the ones who know your work
lifestyle. Though laziness on your part is also a factor for bad health, you
can help it. Everyone you know is on a diet or is doing some workout and you’d
have no other go but to fall into stream. You end up eating things you’d have
never thought you’d eat but That’s not going to help much either. This is the
part where most people are most confused.
Your hobbies, your amusements
the things you did for fun slowly begin to fade out into thin air. You frequently
begin to second guess yourself and become more cautious. The carefree, joyful
attitude is gone.
Slowly the base of
your personality begins to shake up.
The sliver of hope.
When you look a year back into the past where you thought
you we’re having the worst phase of life, you’ll find yourself laughing and
proud of yourself.
If you wish this change can be called as ‘Growing up’ or ‘Being
responsible’.
Every time you face a problem you don’t try to run away from
it, instead you try to find a solution by yourself or with some help, and yes
this can definitely lead to some failures and ultimately serve as a lesson for
future.
Your hard work would definitely pay off as incentives or
hikes or some other positive news.
You would have to push yourself further and further every
day but in the end you will reap the prosperity.
Now that you have somewhat understood how life can work you
will have the courage and stand face first towards the problem show your chest.
You can take it all in and still come up successful.
Life will move on. Life has to.
Idhuvum Kadanthu pogum.
A Special shout out to people who have come this far, and
sacrificing so many things doing so.
P.s. I’ve tried my best to convey what most people fell
after getting into a job right after college if you’d like to add or change
something kindly do so in the comments, also people who are further experienced
than I am, bestow us with your wisdom.
~Experience=Wisdom?
P.P.S Bear with the typos and grammatical errors. Thanks.
