Life is Backpacking

This is an entry for the March Blog of the Month Competition.

  All set for a new journey with luggage on shoulders, we enter our new lives full of innovative challenges and a lot to learning. With dreams about hostel life in eyes, which according to our imagination will be something fantasizing, with no parental control and a desire for a “live-on-your-own” life. But contrary to our expectations, we, the coddled kids of our parents, enter this whole new world of challenges. 

  From learning to wake ourselves up without mom’s call and going to the 8 o’clock class without breakfast to sleeping late at night after concluding all the day’s chores ourselves, we newbies are taught how to handle the little nuisances of life. In fact, hostel life can be best stated as the beginning of a new school life.

  Somehow, we all mature on the way. When we scold ourselves inside to remain quiet in a dispute so as not to make matters worse, we learn the art of patience. Living away from home and missing all the care and attention of loved ones makes us feel the value of those little moments spent together with them. At times, enjoying the little celebrations and at times, cheering up a homesick buddy we learn the art of living as a family. A depressed buddy knows that my friends will not allow me to cry alone. Introverts learn to make new friends and these friends will last a lifetime because they’ve been together in all the ups and downs. Combined studies help us to overcome our weak points and the lectures missed are not a problem anymore. A drowning man catches at a straw and so that ‘nerd’ buddy is there in every group at the time of need. It is said, 

“If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.”  

  The caterpillar knows that it has to go through a painful metamorphosis to have the wings of a butterfly.

  With a lot more to cope with, and of course that burden of substages and tests, this hectic life will give us stronger wings. If no pressure is given, the coal will not transform into a diamond. To be that diamond and to be that butterfly we will have to pass through all of it. 

  And we will emerge out more confident than ever, facing the upcoming circumstances fearlessly. This life will not only teach patience, management skills and self-dependence but will also induce in us various moral codes and provide us with a broader perspective of life so that we may strive to become better individuals for the society and devoted doctors for the service of our nation.

  We'll do it Insha aa Allah!

Eeman Yasir(Batch of 2023)