The Learner’s Journey: Crossroad Apprehensions

The importance of Education and Learning has been expounded and emphasized enough and more than sufficiently by great philosophers and thinkers all over the globe. Learning is also described as a lifelong journey uniformly by all these great learned people or geniuses as we call them.

Thiruvalluvar, the renowned Tamil poet and philosopher has written quite a few couplets on Education and Learning in his masterpiece called “Thirukkural”. Thiruvalluvar says, greater the learning, the deeper the knowledge gained. He also remarks, that when it is known that a learned man can conquer any place he visits by virtue of his knowledge, why would one while away his/her time without continuing to learn until death? He goes a step further to say that the learning acquired by a person during a lifetime would carry him/her through the next seven lifetimes. This probably could explain the birth of geniuses and child prodigies from time to time across the world, over a variety of fields. 

Neuroscientific research findings on the question of whether geniuses are born or made may remain inconclusive to date. However, a look into the biography of genius personalities, past and present indicates that they are both born and made – that is, their unique prowess may be attributed to genomic influences that pre-date their birth as well as their conscious efforts in the current birth to continue their learning journey and exhibit brilliance. 

Genius or no genius, “Learning” therefore seems inevitable to everyone born on this earth. Richard Feynman, the American theoretical physicist of the past century, an acclaimed genius himself is known to have said, “You keep on learning and learning, and pretty soon you learn something no one has learned before.”

The Britannica Dictionary describes a “Learner” as “a person who is trying to gain knowledge or skill in something by studying, practicing or being taught”. Geniuses may probably not be the taught kind. They could be self-learners and could probably have a head start in a certain domain compared to the lesser mortals but they too continue learning in pursuit of deeper knowledge. Oftentimes, serious learning is required to bring out the genius in an individual. When learning is not exempt for even geniuses, the message that emerges for the vast majority of us who are just ordinary mortals longing to become learned is pretty obvious.

A young reader reading this blog may most probably appreciate all that is said above but may have a rejoinder, “I am certainly on the learning journey. I am aware and am pretty clear that I need to pursue higher education for better job prospects and a better life, but I am at a crossroads presently. I am uncertain about my future and carry a lot of apprehensions about the choices I am having to make now, like the University or institute I should choose for my graduation / post-graduation, the stream I should choose for specialization, etc.”

Having these crossroad apprehensions is pretty normal. Comparisons between programs say, Engineering Vs Law or BCom Vs BBA, etc. may bother some aspirants, while for others who have already narrowed down their focus areas at the higher secondary level, comparisons between specializations or comparisons between degree-granting institutions in their chosen location would be the bothering factor. 

For example, a candidate from the Northern Capital Region, aspiring STEM education closer to home would still have to weigh options among the best engineering colleges in Gurgaon. An MBA aspirant from Haryana would still have to weigh options among the best universities in Haryana or the best private universities in Haryana offering an MBA program or will have to make a choice in the area of specialization – MBA in Finance / Marketing / HR / Operations or an MBA in Business Analytics.

As much as these crossroads create anxieties at the time, they also etch beautiful memories once one crosses over. Crossroads are not meant to halt due to indecision. One has to move on in the chosen path despite apprehensions. A favorable aspect with regard to crossroads in the learning journey is that small slips or missteps would never break a person in the long run. They could just end up in small detours. These slight missteps owing to ignorance or misinformation lack of maturity, misjudgment or lack of clarity, or merely the circumstance being beyond control, may only cause a delay in reaching the destination and if one is pretty committed to getting back on track on their learning journey they could always circle back and make-up for the detour. Many of us have tread such paths which make us recount our past journeys with joy and satisfaction.

The key in the learning journey is to pursue one’s own interest and passion. There is no point languishing in a path where one has no natural inclination. Richard Feynman is also known to have said, “Study hard what interests you the most in the most irrelevant and original manner possible.” Every individual in this world is blessed with a unique ability and innate interest in some domain or the other. Discovering this unique interest sooner or later shall help each and every one of us to derive joy and pleasure in our own learning journey.

Authored By

Prof. Hemalatha Chandrashekhar
Professor, School of Business,
The NorthCap University, Gurugram, Haryana.