D-Day

Its that time of the year again. Where my heartfelt wishes and good lucks go out to all those awaiting their enter tomorow.

I can remember so vividly as if it was yesterday. I was more than 100, 000kilometres away from Melbourne, travelling on the train from Virdhunagar to Vellore. The heartthrobs as the train rolls on. A sleepless night. 2am strikes on my watch. It seems like 10,000 bells are ringing even amidst the noise of the train on the tracks. My eyes flick open, even though I was never asleep. Results are out. And the train is somewhere in the midst of nowher. I calm myself down. The train, as typical of all trains in India, isnt going to get to its destination on time, and in fact, it arrived 3hours late. So I knew, by the time I get myself to a browsing centre, it would be late afternoon, Australia time:6pmish. Not expecting my results for another few hours, and being completely detached from my peers, I relax. I needn't have to answer or worry about anything for a little while more.

The sun rises above the horizon. Its 8am in some part of Tamil Nadu. Having eaten a dosa on the train, and spilling the very runny watery chutney everywhere, I sit waiting for the train to rattle on. It should have been at vellore bynow, cept it has only passed Vizhupuram. I sit dazing out. The mobile rings. Wow Airtel hascoverage. The signal is picking up. O, wait we are at a station. No wonder! I didn't pick it up, I couldnt add to my annoyance by telling my periyappa in Vellore that the train was three hours late. My bro gives the phone to me, apparently periya wants to speak to me. I'm like what! He tells me my marks. Amma had called periya, and periya had called me. Beyond knowing my mark, I was frustrated for that moment. This one emotion overtook any other feeling I would have had at knowing my mark. I was the one who'd gone through yr 12. A year of work. And I was to know my mark after 5other people! Alrgiht...they were my parents and relatives. Still!!1.....this was my mark. Something that took form after 14years of cultivation. I had a right to be the first critique. But then I thought, pfft, big deal, I would never have had the nerves to check the marks anyway. This was an unexpected, less built up way of knowing.

On arriving in Vellore, Periya got me to go give sweets to everybody. Clearly, he was overjoyed. I imagined my parents with the same ecstatic excitiment miles away in Melbourne. A moment of homesickness swept over me.

Yet later on, these moments of joy were dampened. Someone asked, do all people there do so well?...clearly that person had no understanding of the Victorian Enter system, and I was too annoyed to explain it to them, and that no, I aint as dumb as you think I am. Adding to this, the commentry from my mum of how so many people I knew, had done incredibly well. Peer pressure kicked in. I felt crap about my marks. To top it all of, only if I paid full fees, would I get into the uni of my choice.

That moment brought about a change in me. I hated the enter system, for its competitiveness. It was so competitive, that I was feelign the vibes 100,00km away. Man, am I glad I wasn't in Melbourne at that time. I wanted to keep my enter top secret. What right did people who dont even know me, dont even talk to me, suddenly call to ask my enter. U busy body people. The enter was all about uni. And the dodgy unis, seperate an enter for rich people, and normal people.

Come this year, when I walked the steps of Deakin, to start my degree, no one cared what enter you got. It was jsut a few numbers in the end. It meant very little. For such a little thing so much fuss? !

My fellow friends, awaiting your results, just keep smiling however brilliant or worse of you did! It never matters in the end. Its who you are, and what your capable of doing. The enter doesnt determine anything of that matter.