Written by: Rtr. Zainy Hassan Ziya

Education, a product of humanity’s cognitive capabilities, has become a fundamental need in the twenty-first century. It is what has moved civilizations forward, kept mankind at the pinnacle of nature’s hierarchy; shaping us into who we are today. 

Man has always been after his desires. Although these desires have evolved over time, the factors determining whether one achieves them have remained constant: ‘Power’ and ‘Wealth.’ These two are distinct, yet interdependent. In today’s world, the main determinant of a person’s ability to attain power and wealth is their ‘Education’.

Education is of different forms, the main one being Academic Education, the one thing we’ve been running after, trying to excel since we were all born. And the struggles that we go through, especially if we are Sri Lankan cannot be put into words. It is when we are born our parents decide whether their child is going to be a doctor, an engineer or a disappointment (In no offence to other degrees, this is just a bad joke!). Our life has been more of a Marathon, and the whistle was blown when we were born (I love how it rhymes), then we started running, we got through Grade 5 Scholarships, O/Levels and then came the easiest and the most noncompetitive exam in the world (No! I’m not being sarcastic), ‘A/Levels’, and once we were done with that, we applied for universities, and Ta-da! In the blink of an eye, we all turned undergraduates.

Then comes our friend for the next few years, “GPA”, also known as ‘Gross Pain Accumulation’ among students. The hardships one must go through to maintain it above expectations is innominate because the relationship GPA has, with the mental health of a student is intimately unexplainably inversely proportional. It is then when you realize you’ve been scammed by that A/L teacher who said,

“Putha! Once you get through A/Ls everything is done and your fate is sealed. You won’t have to study again, they will anyhow pass you and send you out with a degree”

Plus, what worsens things is when you have always been delusional of what campus-life would be like in a way, you set your expectations so high by watching movies like ‘3 idiots’ only to get into University and having to write 10 essays in 3 hours, having to attend 3 tutorials a week and submitting a project every month just to realize campus-life is more like the dystopian Mad Max world you never imagined it to be. 

In addition to academic stress, one thing that I don’t want to miss out to mention is the financial stress undergrads go through. Looking at that backbencher in your school doing business, earning a six-digit monthly income and driving a car (In the worst case even Married!!), while you’re still stuck with a bachelor’s degree travelling hours in a bus to and from Uni will indeed freak you out. Things are even more hard as there are barely any part-time jobs in our country that could blend with the academic schedule of a student.

Being an undergraduate, 

life will hit you left, right and center, 

but…

it’s not just you! we’re all in this together and we’ve got it, and we’ll all make it! dodging all them punches, and surviving all them rounds… we may bleed till the end, but know one thing, 

“It’s all worth it!”