Life is a marathon, not a sprint. This cannot be better explained than looking at the current state of your peers who were quite popular in school. For most of us, that weren't outstanding in any domain during the childhood, these popular kids were the pinnacle of success.
Popularity is not limited to academia - it could be sports, communication, leadership, ability to make friends, setting trends, winning prizes and so on. There is always a group of kids in school and college that are more successful and popular than others.
How did it feel to be average and mediocre during those days. It sucked! People like me were just followers akin to an audience in a concert that has an identity as group but not as an individual. Take out one of us from the group and it would make no difference. Add 10 more, and the result would be the same. Popular kids are like salt in a dish, if you don't have them, you notice it instantly.
The popular kids made our choices look bad. I don't blame them though. They worked harder, were loved by teachers, had a big following and had a clear vision on what they wanted to do and be. Most humans have a tendency to search for a leader and it was clear that these kids had a natural tendency to be one.
If life was a sprint, they were far ahead of us. Some of us had not even started. The same happened in college as well. These kid got top ranks, hardly struggled in any tests. Some were excellent in sports or in other disciplines. 4 years of my college life were spent looking at myself in disgust - barely passing few subjects, constantly worried about next tests, embarrassed about my performance and lack of understanding of topics. I was not alone. In fact, we were in majority.
I noticed things started to change at the end of the college. One of my college mate who was great in studies, had consistent top performing grades failed to pass any of the interviews during college placements. Majority of us did and secured a job before we moved out of the college. He graduated from college and struggled to find job - he had everything - good grades, he was smart and hardworking.
He then undertook some additional courses and landed a bottom of the pit job that was way below his level of intelligence. Fast forward to 2023, he is still kind of doing okay - not great, but okay.
This is not just one isolated case, I have several other examples too.
On the contrary, I have more than a couple examples of my friends who were below average is school/college and doing brilliantly career-wise. Two of them started their own companies and became heads, one quickly climbed the corporate ladder and into a senior management position.
The two cases are quite opposite and might be extreme cases and that leaves rest of us. I follow my friends and acquaintances on Linkedin and I have come to a conclusion. Everybody is doing pretty much the same after 15 years. Almost similar roles, probably no large variance in salaries as well unless they are located in a different country. Again, it could be my bias and a small sample size but, the most studious kid in our class is pretty much on the same level as me. Hmm.
College and school are like a category of sports. Some do well while most will suck! Everyone has different talents and excel is different domains. School and college forces individual force to think and act in a certain way diluting the very identity of the person.
Life is a marathon like I said and once out of a college, kids have so many options and freedom to choose what to do with their lives - how to grow their career and find their passion.
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