the absolute scam of the cbse to college pipeline and how i stopped caring
pata hai aaj kya hua .. one relative asked me aur beta ab 1 saal baad kya banoge ya padhoge and it hit me so bad ....
Let’s talk about the grandest illusion we’ve all been sold neatly packaged in a CBSE syllabus. Remember Class 10? The absolute peak of human existence according to every adult in a five mile radius. Just sacrifice your sleep and your sanity for these board exams they said score well and get the right stream in Class 11 and your life is set. So you do it you organize your entire universe around a textbook and you survive. And your reward is entering Class 12 where the exact same script is flipped but with higher stakes. The pressure triples and you’re told your entire worth as a human being hinges on those 12th board marks. Until the exams end and society collectively shrugs and says oh wait actually board marks don't matter anymore it's all about CUET and entrance exams now go study for those. The goalpost didn't just move it completely changed sports.
And then comes my absolute favorite piece of advice that people love to drop once you hit college like just follow your passion and choose your career according to your interests bro. Excuse me but what interests? Up until the day we graduated school we were literally forced to treat every single subject like it was our life's calling. If you hated math or couldn't stand social science was it okay to leave them and just excel at the remaining subjects? Absolutely not. We had to study everything and grind for maximum marks across the board flattening any actual personal identity or natural interest just to survive the cutoff percentages. We weren't taught to discover our interests we were taught to obey a curriculum and then in year one of college they suddenly expect you to have a deeply defined specialized passion it is hilarious really.
Now as a second year college student looking ahead at the job market the punchline of the joke finally hits you. Gone are the days when you could just study hard for a single exam clear it and get a stable job. Today even after pulling all nighters to get the grades you have to grind just to hunt down internships and network and face a brutal gauntlet of interviews. You realize that everything you were stressed about doing before was just less than what is expected now. The system just upgrades the anxiety package every few years and if you wait for society to give you permission to finally relax and feel like you've achieved everything you will be waiting forever because the cycle is designed to never end.
But here is what they don't teach you while you're drowning in sample papers and resume drafts. The only way to win a rigged game is to change how you define winning. Looking back I realized the absolute irony of taking so much tension for things that felt like life or death at the time only to realize later how small they actually were. I couldn't see it then because when you're in the thick of it the panic feels entirely real. But the positive meaning I dragged out of all that chaos is simple. Winning isn't reaching some mythical finish line where the pressure miraculously stops or where the perfect passionate career falls into your lap. Winning is realizing that because problems and interviews and expectations will always keep coming your peace cannot be tied to them. It’s about learning to be grounded and finding reasons to be happy in every situation right in the middle of it not after the situation is resolved. Life never stops moving and society will never stop demanding so stop waiting for the next milestone to start living because the race is endless which means the only moment that actually matters is right now.
And let's be real about the gender dynamics too because people can deny it all they want but the mental pressure a guy goes through if he doesn't have money or a job is just unimaginable. If a girl doesn't get a job or just gets a small HR job her family will arrange a good marriage for her but what about a guy? If a guy has no money nobody considers him and there is absolutely zero respect for him in this society. It forces you into this constant state of panic because you know you have to secure something and carry that financial weight since there is no safety net for you.