“Society has rules.
And the first rule is you go to college.
You want to have a happy and successful life? You go to college.
If you want to be somebody, you go to college.
If you want to fit in, you go to college.”

The above are some lines from the movie Accepted. Last night, Zaim Ramiz and his family came to sleep over at my house before going on to UTP to register this morning. How time revolves. I’ve known him since we were in MRSM Gerik, since Form 2, and on to MRSM Langkawi. Now, he’s a university student already. And two days later, I’ll be a college student. And just several years back we were all thinking how wonderful it is to begin a life in university. Now that that time has finally come, it all doesn’t feel that much wonderful anymore.

Truth be said, going to university is like an already drawn path in your life. It’s there, something that you are going to go through to get to that other stage of life, the working world. Something that every other people are doing, which makes it feel isn’t right if you’re not doing it as well. Perhaps, it’s become another rule the society has adopted. So perhaps I can rephrase those lines:

“Society has rules.
And the first rule is you go to school.
You want to have a happy and successful life? You go to university.
If you want to be somebody, you go to university.
If you want to fit in, you go to university.”

There. Perhaps that’s much better fits our society. And the other truth is, that rule isn’t the truth anymore. So, let me rephrase that again.

“Society has rules.
And the first rule is, you have to follow these rules.
You go to university? Doesn’t mean you have a happy and successful life.
You go to university? Doesn’t mean you will be somebody.
You go to university? Doesn’t mean you’ll fit in.”

So what’s the point really, anyway? Perhaps our society has put too much emphasise on the educational status of somebody that we forget life goes way beyond that. Don’t get me wrong. Knowledge and education are prerequisites of success, but they are not the guarantor of success. I doubt that they will ever be. They are just like ticket to get on the train to go to that place we call success. And once we’re on board that train, there’s a whole lot of people, crowded, like the LRT in KL. And what do you do in there? People don’t notice you. You’re just another nobody, not a somebody.

So that’s it. Life goes way beyond university. It doesn’t stop there. It starts there, perhaps. So in this stage of life now, it’s just something that we need to get through, to have a better prospective of a better life after we graduated. Only after we’ve finished will we be given our chance and opportunity to actually try to be somebody. And what’s so important of being somebody, anyway? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if we all realise that we are all just everybody? Work for mutual benefit, I’d say, put aside that self-importance. Then perhaps then we can say we have achieved success, for success is a journey, they say. And I’d like to believe that for all of us (or perhaps for most of us, or some. Let’s be realistic, here.) that journey had already started long ago. Let us just pray and work hard and work together and hope that that journey doesn’t end short.

And one more thing. Having had a tradition of excellence this far, I don’t want to stop here. And being an optimistic that I am, still, I think life in University will be just as great. Especially so when I think of it as a whole new experience!

Oh yeah, the phrases that follow the phrases I first quoted up there? Here it goes…

“Well, you know what?
Maybe I didn’t get into college.
- What do you mean?
I didn’t get accepted anywhere.”