Nandini Pahuja
2nd Year

We were all once high school students dreaming about having an amazing college life along with a cool group of friends, but who knew we had a companion waiting for us- anxiety. Anxiety is often experienced by the new students because of peer pressure and the sudden change of environment around them. It also brings about insecurities about their physical appearances, habits,financial status and more. These insecurities lead an individual to set goals like achieving their dream body or getting an internship in a short period of time. While this is not impossible to achieve, but with so many people around you doing so many different things, you might often question your choices and decisions leading to a constant anxiety of not achieving  desired goals. 

The anxiety that I experienced as an engineering student, was because of the endless options available for us to achieve excellence in. I wanted to do engineering but it was only after my first year in college that I realized that getting a BTech degree is not enough to make you a true engineer. I mean someone designed a map for you to follow and you don’t look around? That’s not what we do here. We explore and ask questions like what, why and how. We want to learn web development, app development, cloud computing and cyber security but we also want to make art, participate in competitions and attend fests. Engineers will do everything apart from studying for mid semester exams ( We know, we do it too). Now, say for example you decided what you want to learn, how are you going to do it? Youtube? There are 150+ videos available. Next step: Ask a senior for help? Maybe 2 seniors? Both of them have opinions which are exactly opposite. Now what? You start on your own, watch the video that feels right. After going through half of it, you realize that you have learnt nothing because you need to learn the prerequisites before starting. Ultimately, you give up because you don’t know where to start and after going through this process about 3-4 times you realize that this just won’t work. After youtube videos you learn about coding websites like Coding Ninjas, hackerRank and GeeksforGeeks. Gradually, you will realize that having an interest in a particular domain is not enough. You need to learn DSA and DBMS and probably a few other things, in detail. I think its time to reveal our ultimate savior, LEETCODE. By Practicing leetcode everyday , it will  not only make you a great coder but also an amazing problem solver since it has questions from real interviews of multinational companies like Google and Amazon. Therefore, just start solving questions of your dream company’s placement interview and you are good to go. But what if getting placed is not your ultimate goal? 

Again engineering is all about what, why and how but also figuring out the solutions to the what and why problems and telling the world how to do it. Start Ups are a thing that almost every student dreams about at least once in their life but only a few actually plan it out and start making progress. The easiest way to get an idea for a Startup is to look around yourself and find out the problem you or the people around you are facing and then find a solution to it. Someone is having problems with their groceries delivery, BigBasket.  Someone wants food at 11 in the night, Zomato. Someone is having trouble with payments and tracking their expenses, Paytm. 

Again placements and Startups are not the only things, there are higher studies, government exams and so much more you can do. The thing is, we all feel anxious because we think the other person has all of it sorted. No, everyone is still trying to figure out what they want. In fact , half of us are trying to understand what is going on. So instead of getting anxious, if you take a deep breath and believe in yourself, everything will work out. Don’t stop exploring, ask questions, talk to people, participate in those events you might feel are not your cup of tea, because you never know which new idea will come up in your mind or what might just interest you enough to keep you entertained for the rest of your life. To add on, nothing is permanent and you can always change what you are doing. You got placed and want to start a Startup? You can do that. You already have a startup but want to go for higher studies? Leave someone in-charge while you are there about learning new things. There is always a way, you just need to be willing enough to find one.