Graduation Day

That long-awaited, glorified, but sometimes even dreaded day.  A day I played over and over again in my mind a million times before it actually happened.   The culmination of four years of excruciating work and rigorous study, sleepless nights, and too much coffee.  The day when I was supposed to have grown up—not in height but in maturity—finally ready to participate in and contribute meaningfully to the “real” world. 

This is the day that clearly divides adolescence and adulthood, when you suddenly have to start taking responsibility for yourself.  This day comes and time seems to stand utterly still: everything is picture perfect, everyone around you— even your enemies—has a charming glow about them.  On this day, it seems like the whole world—or at least everyone in your whole world—is right there by your side, ready to celebrate. I suppose it’s a little bit like how entering into heaven is supposed to feel!

But no one tells you that tomorrow is going to be as “real” as yesterday was and you will not actually be any different than yesterday. You certainly won’t be any more enlightened.

This day came in my life: this most awaited, inevitable day. It came and went and I was nowhere to be found. 

Where was I?  In a place that no one would have guessed and I definitely could never have imagined.

I was across the world in a foreign land surrounded by people I did not know, who did not speak my language, or act like me: I had packed myself up and landed in India where I received my diploma by mail. In a way, I guess I graduated into the “rest of my life” before that long-awaited graduation day.  

And maybe, just maybe, because I skipped out on my official Graduation Day, I have become an eternal student —not at the University but rather by way of learning from every little thing around me.  From my parents, teachers, elders, to the ants, the wind and the stars. 

And it all started in a deliciously exotic and mysterious place bursting with the most intriguing conglomeration of people and culture: the exuberant land of India.