As I walked down the corridor of my school of 12 years, every teacher who passed by would congratulate me on my achievement. It turned out that making it to Georgia Tech is considered a great achievement here. Well, it’s not wrong to say it is. Maybe for people who make it to the Ivies, it’s not a big deal. But for me, my family and for my school, where, apparently, I happened to be the only one going to a college in the US after school, it definitely was a big deal.
Suddenly, It dawned on me that this moment had changed things. People started asking me about the tests I took, the books I studied, the courses I enrolled in. For a second, everyone was interested in how I made it happen. Of course, my achievement did not overpower the intelligent IIT material students whose photos flashed on newspapers. For the non-Indians who are reading this article, I must tell you that this happens only in India! After politicians, it’s the IITians whose faces you can mostly familiarize with every time you glance at the morning paper. Well, I was not one of them. But surprisingly, my story seemed as important to people as those of the IITians. This was something I hadn’t expected. I used to believe that in India people consider you intelligent if you crack IIT. But it turned out that people everywhere consider you important if you can crack their expectations.
Sometimes these expectations can also prove quite daunting. I remember a certain chemistry test at school. For the entire year during my 11th standard, I was the highest scorer in chemistry and set high expectations in my chemistry teacher. Next year, I scored average, but my teacher's expectations, though not shattered, were doubted. The same expectations got me from a hero in the eyes of my teacher to a commoner in my own eyes as well as my teacher's. And it took a long time before I could be at the top again. Hence, I learned that expectations are okay as long as they do not turn into beliefs.
It is quite interesting that we are not just bound by expectations that people have of us but also by the ones we sculpt on your own. Often we are limited by them. In my case, I expected that I would get into a good college but frankly never expected it to be as good as Georgia Tech. I was lucky to get beyond my expectations, but life is not a bed of roses. On the other hand, I did never expect to get into an Ivy League and so I never applied. I regretted my decision only when a friend of mine got into one without letting his expectations take over. Thereafter, I learnt never to let expectations limit oneself.
When I think of my last day at school, I see all the good wishes and "best of lucks" showered upon me. But the ones I care the most about are expectations. One of my teachers invited me to speak about my experiences of studying abroad with my juniors when I return for vacation. One of my uncles promised to get me in touch with a friend of his who graduated from Georgia Tech. A friend of mine wants to see me become the first astronaut of Assam. My grandfather wants me to take him on a visit to NASA if I get to intern there. And all that I see is expectations. Sometimes I feel that maybe everyone is expecting too much of me. But the very other second, I think what if I can go beyond those expectations. Expectations have this very power of either making you or breaking you. The good thing is that we can make the choice. So I learned that you should let expectations make you more than what you think you can be.
