It was a long time ago that I had this doubt in choosing between English and History for graduation. The problem was that I liked both of the subjects almost equally, and couldn’t figure out a choice between them. I was also not confident about choosing between these two also because I was a very doubtful person, and wondered which of these would do me good and which one won’t be that good for me. There was not going to be much difference in the studies for me, but there was going to be certain change in the results.
I used to read both English Literature and History works, and so that was going to be a problem. So, I decided to ask a few people. The result was all on one side though, in favour of English. I tried tossing a coin, and even that showed English. Only the time spent in the games Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Civilization and Caesar had me with another ideas. People were all so much in favour of English that I wondered why they hadn’t recommended Humanities to me for Plus Two. Still, I was closer to one of my two favourite courses then.
We need lighthouses in our lives to show where to go without hitting the rocks.
I was still going to tell these people when I joined and where, because letting too many people know things was the reason behind most of my problems. So, I called my friend who was studying outside Kerala, and as many of the others and almost every friend whom I had from school or neighbourhood, he was also going through Engineering. If he wasn’t going through that course, that would have been a surprise, because I have had the title of being the only one strange non-Engineer, non-Doctor person.
He told me to go on with English because he knew that I wrote something which none of my friends wanted to read or understand. I felt that it was a fair suggestion because I had often wondered what I wrote about and why. Choosing English could give me a better direction at that time. There was the need to read more and direct my writings better. So, choosing English was the right thing to do, and History could happen on another day. So, the friend went back to the procedure of collecting supplementary exams, and I made clear about the choice again.
During these days, I wonder about the decisions, but choosing English hasn’t really bothered me at all, even as I couldn’t find a job after that; it is just that the route doesn’t make me sad. It is something that I had wanted and with both the BA as well as the MA, I have never really felt any big trouble during the course. Even now, I find happiness in being MA English graduate rather than any other, and this also meant that I could study in the one college where I always wanted to study. It was the right choice; may be History would have done just okay, but the choice was still fine.
Choices do make things happen – what if we take that wrong turn instead?
But I did take my second degree in History too, and so it wasn’t really a loss even there. In the end, it was about which degree to come first and which one to follow. With nothing lost in the end, the #SachchiAdvice worked better because the language had given me more power, and I could use a good amount of this acquired strength while writing for the History exams too. History had also come as one of the extra subjects to study for the English graduation. So everything was related.
Nowadays, when I wonder what I should have done different or what I could have chosen in another way, this choice doesn’t come to the list of bad decisions, and it happens to be the #SachchiAdvice which has made things work. There is always the need for some confirmation related to the decisions from people we trust, and I haven’t been that good in making decisions. But here, the decision was the kind which still inspires me to write. I feel that if I was not MA English, I wouldn’t have even started a blog at WordPress.
I am participating in the #SachchiAdvice Contest by MaxLife in Association with BlogAdda.
***The images used on this blog post were taken by me only.
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