How has Education Transformed My Life?

Education encompasses the formal and informal ways of obtaining knowledge, acquiring skills and values to live a meaningful life. Ever since the birth of a child, the process of learning starts and continues throughout the life.it is a never ending process in human life. It includes the formal learning at schools and colleges as well as the informal knowledge system of home and society.

 Personally speaking, education has played a vital role in my life. It has made me confident and strong. It has removed my nervousness and fear related to facing people. Since my school days, I never hesitated to participate in extra-curricular activities and prove myself because the school education helped me realize my potentials.my confidence to make right judgements in life has also increased because of education. When I was in the dillema related to the choice of subjects that I wanted to pursue in my life high school, it helped me understand my core competencies and make the decision. As my strength was literature and writing, I chose humanities and social sciences for my further studies.

Moreover, it has motivated me to work towards a goal that I wanted to pursue.Since my childhood, I really wanted to do something for the betterment of my society and there were parental concerns forbidding me from doing this.  But education gave me the inherent power  to cope with this situation and achieve what I had desired.

Education has provided me the required skills and expertise to move ahead in my career. These skills include : interpersonal, decision making and problem solving among others. As of today, I have tackled the problems in my life with enough courage. When people used to laugh at me for my physique in school and college days, I used to handle that with ease. Since I was an academically outstanding student, my confidence was so high that these criticisms would have never distracted me from my pursuits.

I have become critical and analytic. Being critical and analytic has helped me to understand a scenario from different perspective and take better decisions. This has fostered the habit in me of cross-checking the information and facts for their reliability and validity. It is vital because it adds multiple insights in life and helps to emerge as a scholar. Being a scholar will help in organizing knowledge in the existing field of study and contribute a new block of knowledge to accelerate the pace of development in country.

Education has fostered social awareness in me. It has taught me to assume certain responsibilities for the welfare of the community and the society where I live. Rather than just teaching me to fulfill my self-interest, it has inculcated a civic sense in me. This sense has been so profound that I have started contributing for the betterment of the society. In this way, education for me is not just about becoming competitive but also about using that competitiveness for the betterment of   society as a whole.

Perseverance and resilience have been the hallmark of whatever I have achieved in my life so far.I have practiced Consistently pursuing a goal without worrying much about the outcome. I have learned not to get bogged down by failures in life.  For instance, I was able to publish my first article in the newspaper in the tenth attempt. So,rising again  from those failures and moving ahead with optimism and hope is my priority. In this regard, education has helped me to understand that making mistakes are normal things in human life. What is more important is learning from them and moving ahead.

Education has enabled me to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong. This sense of rationality has developed my awareness and made my life comfortable. Owing to this, I have also been able to avoid the bad company of people and build relationships with good ones.

Obtaining education has  helped me to have a good quality of life and understand my society and nation. I have been encouraged to become a part of the social change and transform the lives of people in all the  possible ways that I can. As a student of development studies, I learned about the need of working for ushering social change. I have been ignited and enthused???. Instead of blaming the exisiting system for not being able to deliver,  I chose to be a part of the solution and do whatever I can to induce positive change. In this way, I have recently become a part of the national social movement of ending education inequity in Nepal.

Summing up, education has enriched my life in different ways. By providing intelligence and guts, it has made my life  meaningful and worthy. I feel really fortunate to have attained quality education which not only imparted knowledge and skills but also values.  

By Kushal Pokharel 

Nepal