Pages - Menu

Apr 12, 2005

Peer influence


This topic has been in my mind for a long time. We come across this word "peer" in every stage of our lives - right from school to college to workplace. A student who has just completed his 10th std wants to take up commerce, not because his parents are insisting, not because he is interested in the subject BUT his friend has taken up commerce. During my engineering days, most of my colleagues were digesting Barron's word list one after the other and giving GRE exams. Not because everyone's ambition is to do an MS, but they didn't want to stand behind their friends after college.

These days, competition and peer influence has gone so high that people hardly find time to identify their interests or talents. Even if a few of them have identified their talents, they don't really take it forward. A first year engineering student is good at poetry. In the second year, he has to go to different computer classes because many of his colleagues / friends have joined. He hardly finds time to write a poem. In the third year, he is totally lost in touch with poetry. In the final year, he forgot that he actually had a talent of writing poems.

Each person in this world has a unique talent. It is a gift that God has given to his children. We got to hunt for this treasure. It is tough but if we are in the constant lookout , we are sure to find it. You might get success if you go in the path of your friend. But it may not give you happiness or satisfaction. Find your own path of success, don't follow others.