What does the end of college really mean?

In another two weeks, I start my first full-time job. Having last 6 years of my life spent in university, getting a degree after another and even the time spent at school before that, the transition to owning responsibilities is becoming a unique experience.

In another two weeks, I will have a lot more supervisors and even more number of employees under me. While the past few years have been constant grasping of knowledge, now would be the time to make a difference. Yet, learning should not stop.

To a lot of us, college and university might have meant learning from the textbooks, and from our professors and guides. A lot of my colleagues, my batch-mates, my seniors and juniors would differ from this opinion though. And today I stand with them. My learning has come from my surroundings, my interaction with people, if not just books. 6 years back, when I was entering university, I was under-confident, could not speak fluent English, shy in interactions and timid in most situations. I was not proud of that, but with the help of people around me, learning curve changed completely. Every day, every minute since then has given me a take-home lesson. In classroom, you take home the knowledge, In the world outside that classroom, you will take home yourself, you will shape your future.

Learning is often confused with good grades and perfection on day 1. It doesn't have to be this way. Learning should be more about taking lessons from the mistakes and making sure they are not repeated. And for that, there should be freedom of committing mistakes, to help one learn. Sure, mistakes would result in bad grades sometimes, but it is more important to commit them earlier than later.

So, what does all of this have to do with end of college? I write this note as a reminder to myself and to everyone else, joining their brand new and shiny jobs, that learning doesn’t have to stop. It should never. The methods, the ways of learning may change but it still remains a life-long process. The end of college is but a transition in responsibilities, how you learn from those responsibilities will decide your future, not the good grades or perfection on day 1.

I hope to look back at this article twenty years down the line and be able to tell people that I am still learning. Would you hope that too?