A revisit to my college essay :)

(Note: This essay was an attempt to one of the the Coalition prompts. Fun fact: It got me into several colleges. But more importantly, I like to look at it as a milestone that brings to light what the early day Sumanth used to be. Enjoy reading it!)

“You need guidance, someone to show you the correct path”, my dad suggested me to join a coaching class. Even before I could respond, he was backed by mom. Clearly, a classic Indian open and shut argument. Thereafter, the afternoons in my locality featured me running with a sandwich to catch the bus for a 30 minute-journey.

New people. New place. More importantly, new things to learn. But it didn’t take long for me to be acquainted with all of those. It became a routine for me: come back from school, freshen up, rush to the bus, and join the squad. This kind of monotonous schedule was boring until weekends showed up on the calendar.

Weekends meant no bus. Being an industrial region, the place where I lived didn’t have much of an urbanized connectivity. So, the same squad got onto streets hoping for lifts by strangers. Though dangerous at times, the result was worth the risk. Our determination never ignored anyone; the hand always pointed towards the destination. Hence, the victory was always on our side. This way, weekends became interesting for two reasons.

Experimenting. It was intuitive that a bunch of hands in the air at the same time won’t help. So, we sought out strategies for collective success. Logical ones were tested directly on-site; failed ones were crossed from the list. A moderate distance between two individuals, the way of asking, alternate requesting were the basic guidelines. Things amended when traffic, crowd, special occasions, and sun’s position were considered. Our group loved to put brains together to figure out this puzzle which involved social thinking and real-time decision making.

Traveling. This part typically included a stranger by me on a two-wheeler, or an extra friend if it was a bigger vehicle. But in all of the cases, commuting with unknown people was fun. There was an opportunity to break into conversations with no prejudices. Commuters hosted a diverse mix. Once it was two people giving opinions about water-parks in and around, once it was an old man who was confused between routes, and once it was a young lady who covered the distance in less than 20 minutes! These small talks were important as I shared a part of my life in those journeys.

Having impacted me in many ways, they helped me discover a new side of me. Simple phrases carried meaning enough to make a change in thinking, to refine an idea, or to come to a conclusion.