College life
Young speak
By Vebhav Gupta

COLLEGE life is entirely different from life at school. In school, the students are treated as dumb cattle. They have no say in their lives. The pressure of teachers at school and of parents at home, hardly allows students to feel free.

And life in college has pleasures of its own. A college student can move about freely. He is his own master. He has the energy, intelligence and will to go up in life. He has bubbling enthusiasm, but his energies need to be channelised. For the first time in his life, he realises his true potential and capabilities, and finds himself facing the battle of life at his own risk and responsibility. It is a challenging period and he jumps into the fray with hope and excitement. There are no frowning eyes of the school master. No homework, no punishments. Teachers are there, but to simply guide the students. They behave like friends.

To be in college means to be mature and responsible.It means to be bold enough to start taking one’s own decisions and developing the courage to stand by them. It means to be ready to grasp opportunities and to strive for self-improvement.

A college provides excellent opportunities for the growth of the mind and personality. It teaches a student much more than what is offered in course books. But, all this can happen if the energies of a student are channelised on the right track. If a student wastes his time in useless activities, he is sure to ruin himself. There are students who run after every pleasure that college life provides. But there are others who with enjoyment, work hard and aim to gain something out of college life. A college student has full liberty to direct his energies to the field of his choice. There are clubs, societies, associations, games, meetings and many other activities which prove helpful in developing the all-round personality of a student.

But, college life is not merely a merry-go-round of pleasure. It is the golden period of preparation, a period that brightens the future. Though college life provides freedom, it should not be misused. It is sad that many college students ruin themselves by misusing their freedom and acquiring bad habits (like taking drugs, drinking alcohol, and indulging in eve-teasing and rowdyism). No doubt, college life is a glorious period, but it should be enjoyed with all precautions and not with "who-cares-a-fig" attitude.