I still remember my first day at college, how I was so nervous and afraid and how everyone was so welcoming and kind that it felt like family to me. Ever since that day, KMC has been my home and it’s hard to imagine going anywhere else.
My dreams, as Dan Rather once famously said, began with the teachers who believed in me, tugged and pushed and led me to another plateau, sometimes poking me with a sharp stick called truth. For eons, colleges and particularly teachers have been reshaping history, honing geniuses, inspiring pupils, turning winners out of ordinary people and classrooms into life’s largest laboratory.
College, the first step, the building block of our identity; the place where we learn how to handle life’s hard deals. College was where my talents got recognized and were encouraged and developed. I remember back in school, the astonished face of my mother when she first came to know that her daughter could groove to the music and match the beat, an uncommon skill found in the history of our family and how happy she felt about it and got me enrolled for a professional dance class at that tender age. College has contributed so much more that I can now manage to act and mime too! It has molded this little, terrified kid into a strong, independent girl and for it she’ll be always grateful.
I firmly believe that training children to learn by force and harshness is wrong and instead we should direct them by what amuses their minds, so that they are able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. Our college, hence, focuses on the overall development on the individual and prepares them for the future. It plays an essential role in widening the outlook of students and inculcating virtues in them such as perseverance, sincerity, truthfulness, tolerance, discipline and obedience. From here, students learn how to adjust with the society at later part of life and the ability to make right decisions when required.
Clay P. Bedford correctly stated, “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” At Manipal,
with their continuous habit of making us search for knowledge with assignments and other purposeful projects, it has kept that ‘penchant for more’ alive within our inquisitive selves.
And besides everything else, Colleges are so much fun because they have given me some of the best days of my life. How can I forget moments like struggling to remain up for extensive lectures, the laughing and the giggling, playing football at MARENA only on interclass day, the mess where we’d complain and rant with a chock-a-block plate in hand, doing combined studies(a myth!), the feel of new text books, becoming pale like dead before getting exam papers, hanging in the canteen most of the time, working hard and rehearsing for Interclass and Utsav, and the most energetic part, shrugging heads with full volume heavy metal after every single party and loads and loads of other insane stuff. Most importantly, college has made possible our rendezvous with our ‘innocently mischievous’ friends who have made these moments so special. Life seems great when they’re with us and now they are an integral and inseparable part of our lives.
The times at College are so unforgettable because of the enjoyable experiences that we encounter in the environment and even the protection we seem to benefit from being always under the watchful eyes of our teachers and authorities. My elder sister once told me, “Life is full of changes. Some happen gradually, you barely realize it and some changes are thrust upon you so suddenly that they are rude shocks. There will be times in your life when you’d found yourself thinking back to these days, longing for the security they offered, no real responsibilities other than getting assignments and records done on time, and passing exams; chatting with friends for hours on end and thinking of those fun times, and wonder why we grew up so fast.”
College is not just a white chalk to reveal the magic of the wonderful world in which entwine love and fun. College is not just a blackboard that has sentimental meaning, but the place which forges the future of each child. So even though the coming years wouldn’t be that simple, no doubt with the hectic hours of studying, I wouldn’t trade my college days for the world because through thick and thin, it has been there for me.
So, I will answer your question, why I chose Manipal (and mark here, I will answer in a complete sentence like I have been impeccably impressed upon here). Manipal rocks because it hasn’t just taught me how to live life but to live it to the fullest!
