All the world's a school

I can't list down all my learnings in life, but if you give me just a few seconds to think, I would say - my best learning in school was when the same teacher who taught me "Truth triumphs", also taught "Sometimes untruth is the best truth"; the best learning from my father was when he who helped me know what I like and what I don't, also said "If someone asks for the red, you should take the blue, even if you like the red"; the best learning from my mother was when she who taught me to live by myself, also told "The best use of life is to be useful to others".

And this post will be too short to tell the best learning I have had from each of you. From small things like "You use too many exclamation marks in your sentences" and "You should brush your teeth before going to bed", to deep thoughts like "Everybody thinks he has to adjust for all others every time" and "What seems right to you is not necessarily right to everyone"; the list is endless. I still can vaguely remember the scene when I cried as I was left into what I thought was my first classroom, I didn't know I was already admitted into this school of all of us three years before that. How many teachers, how many peers, how many seniors, how many juniors - and strangely enough all of us keep switching roles!

You have helped me learn so much in this school - pseudo-races for me to know what it takes to come first and what it means to come last, pseudo-tasks for me to know what it takes to lead and what it means to follow, pseudo-happiness to know why I should make others happy, pseudo-pains to realize what everyone goes through otherwise, pseudo-successes to understand what progress is, pseudo-failures to know what the process is. Some of those threw me out of my equilibrium and some helped me gain it back; some made me feel good about this world while some pretended to do the opposite, everything just for me to learn.

I am learning everyday and phase-by-phase. With every phase I'm looking myself from the opposite side, and then I turn back and face the same side. If I don't contradict myself, am I probably not growing? If I find myself great, have I probably not examined myself carefully? If I don't learn, am I probably not living? Regardless of whether or not I do all this, you still try to teach me in the best possible way every time, even if it means the harshest way; I've enjoyed so far and am eagerly looking forward to more enjoyment. This post is my gratitude to all of you for having me in (y)our school.

Learning is not compulsory, neither is survival - Edwards Deming.