As a student I have never been good at math and science. When I was given the option I dropped science and I took economics in its place . I did not drop math thinking that I will somehow be able to cope up with the subject and manage till the 11th Grade.

My parents had other thoughts. They wanted me to do well at maths. To be very honest I was a very mediocre student when it came to math. My sister excelled at math like a pro so therefore they thought that if I emulate her, I will be able to do well

My parents had engaged a new tuition teacher for me. He was a nice person and was ready to accept my foolishness in math but after sometime he started losing his cool. The pressure and the standards of the teacher was also very daunting to me and after a point I was unable to cope up with his level

one evening he had come to take a class test and at that time I had performed very badly.

That’s when my father and my mother were involved and all three of them at once were trying  to tell me to improve in math, I only knew that if i continue with math then my future was at stake.

That night itself I told my mother and my father that I no longer wished to take up math. I knew that I wanted to have a better academic record then I would have to leave math. My parents were initially shocked with my sudden decision but then they decided that I was right in a way and supported me. The next day I met my counselor and I took her advice and she assured me that there are many options beyond math

When I changed my subject from maths to commerce I also knew that there would be repurcussions. It exactly turned out as I predicted. People were laughing at me for changing my subject, I became the laughing stock of my class, but then I knew that these people won’t be deciding my future, I would be deciding my future. I decided to perform well in commerce and economics and make them my passion

I just want to say that you must have a belief in yourself and the confidence to execute your decision properly, then you can do much better for yourself

Krishna Chakrapani

Krishna Chakrapani is a 10th Grade student at Jamnabai Narsee School

"Every moment seemed so difficult for me and the next 5 days were filled with sleepless nights, lonely walks, loads of introspection and lack of companionship…”

"Talking about giving up from doing something is not easy. It is extremely convoluted on many levels. A small amount of complacency from completing a daily task eventually leads to one choosing to give up. Everyone has some moment in their lives where they have overcome a difficulty and looking back at it just makes them proud. I have been very lucky and blessed to have not been through any drastic difficulty in my life but this phase of my life changed the way I ever faced any barrier that came in my way.

My story is basically what any student faces on a regular basis, the pressure of excelling in academics. Sometimes, students who do well in school are under the impression that every stage of their academic life would be a smooth sail. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was a very bright student who had barely faced any difficulties in excelling in academics until the end of my 10th grade. Then came the steep jump in the level of academics, the 11th grade. I began my preparations for the JEE like any other common student who is confused about what to do and hence chooses to pursue engineering. The initial days of my preparation were fun. I enjoyed studying the science behind how the entire universe functions and hence, I was relieved that the path I chose to pursue was not wrong after all. Little did I know that a subject that I adored and enjoyed the most would be the reason behind me wanting to quit.

Math was always inspiring for me and I was pretty good at it too until I knew how complex it could get. I succumbed to the very first exam that we had. There were two papers on the same day, each for a 3 hours duration with an hour gap in between. These two papers decided the segregation of students based on their performance and everyone wanted a seat in the 1st batch; hence, the pressure could not have been more. After the first paper was over, I decided to leave and not take the second paper because I knew that I was barely scoring anything good in the first paper. That day was very rough as it involved multiple arguments with my parents because I wanted to change the path of my career to something entirely different which would have ensured that the fees that my father paid for my 11th and 12th would go down the drain and plus he would have to spend more.

Every moment seemed so difficult for me and the next 5 days were filled with sleepless nights, lonely walks, loads of introspection and lack of companionship. No one could understand my thought process behind choosing to give up and not wanting to pursue this path further.

The results of the test came out on the 6th day and I was flummoxed to see that I performed well enough to get into batch 6 out of the 9 batches that were made, and this was based on just my performance in one paper out of two. All the aspirants are well aware that JEE is an exam solely based on relative performance over absolute scores but no one actually gets the feel of that until they experience it at least once. This was my experience and I was glad that it came at the early stages of my entire journey towards the exam. At a later stage, I figured out that if I had just attempted the second paper as well, I would have definitely been selected for the 2nd batch or maybe even the 1st batch. That was when I realized how impulsive decisions can sometimes actually flip your mind to do something you don’t even expect.

This experience of mine surely changed my perspective of how to tackle difficult academic situations. Today, in my under-graduation studies, I have been through 2 subjects where I have failed and had to repeat them to pass. But this time, I was not panicked. I was definitely not proud of my performance but I was surely proud of my ability to deal with it and obtain a much better grade on repeating it.

So, small experiences like these can surely change the way you look at various obstacles in your life and today, I am proud that I possess the ability to deal with pressure situations.

Shashank Ravishankar

Shashank is pursuing his final year of Mechanical Engineering at VIT[Vellore Institute of Technology], Vellore.