Have you ever been unable to achieve what you wanted to, such as scoring A grade in your exams, and you are depressed that now you can’t go to the college/university of your choice.

Friends, it is a fact of life that failures do occur and dreams do shatter, but it is up to you how you react to the situation — you can choose to give up or get up and start again.

You can reappear in the exams in order to improve your grades. You should look at the bigger picture — if you really want to go in a university of your choice, then sacrificing one year should not matter to you. But if you don’t want to give a one-year gap, then you have to compromise and choose any other university that offers the same programme you wanted.

I remember my dream was to become a doctor and my board percentage was good enough but not as good to be eligible for the university of my choice. So I reappeared in my board exams and this time scored better than before.

My friends now became my seniors and this did hurt me but I remained focused on my goal. It was a tough decision. But I am happy that I took it. And today, I am a surgeon.

At that time, I could have abandoned my dream and could have taken up another field, but I didn’t because I believed in my dream and my capability to achieve it.

So don’t lose hope. There is always a way out. You just have to figure that out and work on it.

Failure is just a barrier in your way, the barrier can be tough, but remember if you lose strength, it will become a fear that you can never overcome.

Published in Dawn, Young World, February 10th, 2018