“I wish I could study as seriously as I did back when I was learning ABC”. How many times have you said that as you sat up bleary eyed, the night before a paper, trying to cram in a semesters worth of notes in a single night. Then come the promises of studying ‘from the beginning’ next semester. And inevitably, those promises are forgotten as soon as the bell rings after your last paper.

Back when you were studying ABC, you’d enthusiastically rattle it off, any chance you got. Today, if someone were to ask you to recite formulas you’re studying, you’d probably want to shoot them in the face. Whatever happened to us? It’s a gradual change for most. Lets see the downward graph in academia that most of us share.

Primary school

You sit in your assigned seats, praying each time the teacher changes your ‘place’ that she won’t assign you a seat next to the class clown, god forbid they distract you and you lose track of what’s happening in class. You curse the teacher with something as serious as ‘stupid’ when she gives you a seat on the last row and then immediately regret your harsh words. Anything below an 18/20 in a test and you don’t want to live anymore. You could stab the life out of people with your forever sharpened pencils. And kids from the opposite sex all have the cooties. It doesn’t matter how nice they may be. If you’re a girl and he’s not, you’re not supposed to be friends.

Secondary school

Its time to move on to pens! Suddenly you feel all grown up because you no longer have to liberty of using an eraser. The first few words you strike off are accompanied by a few tears, but it’s worth not having to use that damn sharpener. You gradually get used to it. Suddenly the last bench doesn’t seem so bad and a seat not just next to, but somewhere around the class clown is most popular. You need a few laughs to get you through that dreaded 10th standard.

Junior College

Discard the uniforms and don the ‘coloured clothes’ you’d get so excited to wear to school on your birthday every year. You get that anonymity you craved for back in school, where every teacher knew all about you and your track record since before even you can remember. You are introduced to the concept of bunking. It gives you an adrenalin rush the first few times you skip class, even if its just to sit in the canteen with a smile plastered on your face thinking about the current class you aren’t sitting for. And henceforth all professors have nicknames that can only be represented here with a whole lot of asterisks.

From this…

…to this

Grad School

You’re late almost everyday. The closer to college you stay, the later you arrive. Assignments are meant to be kept aside and completed at ninja speeds on the day of submission. Always copied off a nerd, obviously. You rate a professor based on how chilled out he is. When someone asks you how you did in an exam you answer with a jubilant “Pass” or a resigned “Fail”. Checking the attendance list is as nerve wracking as checking your results. And a beer must always follow on the day of your results. And every other day.

At every stage, you look back at the years gone by and alternate between laughing and cringing when you remember the stupid things you said and did, the hideous bell-bottoms you proudly wore and the music you listened to. In all probability, that’s the exact same thing you’re going to be doing 5 years from now when you look back at today.

This is as far as I’ve gotten, so I can’t really comment on what comes next. But if the graph maintains its current trend, I think I should seriously be scared about my future. Or, maybe just continue to not give a shit and see how it goes!