The power of taking it slow
there was a girl whose big dream was to
study in an international school
to living in campus and experience
foreign cultures
but at the end of the day she turned out
to be just a dreamer
in fact she never realized that all the
opportunities out there in the world
could be available for her one day and
she calmed herself thinking that
this dream was too unrealistic for her
to come true
but one day this transparent glass
barrier shattered
it happened when one of her friends
actually took a step towards his dream
and as a result he succeeded he was
admitted one of the most prestigious
international colleges in the world
and you know this shook the girl to the
car like
many questions rose in her head and
remained unanswered
so my dream wasn’t as unrealistic as i
thought
she asked herself what would it be if i
realized it earlier
in what way would it change my life
is it too late but wait what if
there’s no need to rush at all
you may think this is story of failure a
story of unfulfilled dreams but actually
it’s a story of awakening and somehow
changing the mindset
because it all starts in the mind and
this shift and perceptions also change
the girl’s life to the core
and as you probably already have
understood that girl
was me so from that day on i was
convinced that if you want to change
something around you
first of all you should change the way
you think and the way you approach
challenges
and this also works in society if we
want to develop
we must reconsider our perceptions of
some fundamental issues
sometimes i feel very disconnected from
the world
i’m not talking about the emotions which
are too personal and may be associated
with various circumstances
it’s just i as a youngster as a part of
society
fill myself in a confined circle in
armenia
you may say this is normal this is this
is the country and i live in right
but when i see how young people from
different parts of the world
communicate with each other so actively
how many programs opportunities they use
in order to reach their
dreams and the goals i just feel like we
don’t live our lives to the fullest and
we
overlook many benefits of life
and this is all because the restrictions
that we have created for ourselves
that often make just no sense and i
believe i’m not the only one who
thinks so and here comes the question
why are we so isolated then
you know it’s hard to give a definite
answer but one thing is clear
that the problem is deeply rooted in our
minds and worldview
when i was in middle school i remember
that we were having a discussion about
dominion highland
and a million a million plato but
i do remember that carl ritter a famous
german geographer
has given armenia plato a name the
mountainous
island and it seems like this name has a
prophetic meaning for us even centuries
later
we act like we are an island in this big
big world
but actually no one is island no man is
island
and this refers to countries and nations
as well
we are all human we have the same needs
our feelings are the same
and it’s just illogical not to use the
beneficial experience of other nations
in order to grow and prosper so
why i am telling you all this it’s
because even the best ideas coming from
abroad
are highly resisted in armenia before
being adopted
and one of these ideas is the idea of
taking a gap here
actually i felt the need to talk about
it when i realized during the
conversation
that many of my friends had no idea
about it
and it is so unfamiliar and typical for
us
that we don’t even have the
corresponding armenian term
the problem is that even before we are
born a certain plan is drawn for most of
us and we are to follow it
deviation from this plan is mostly
unacceptable
so the child has to go to kindergarten
then go to school for 12 years then go
to university
graduate get a job and also not forget
about getting married
such great responsibility has been
entrusted to us
we must not be mistaken we must do
everything on time
we must continue the work of our sisters
and the list could be continued
so taking a gap here
it’s just a way it’s just a waste of
time you are losing a year that say
but while we are in a hurry we do not
know
maybe just because we want to cram in as
much as possible in order to be
productive but at what cost
sometimes taking it slow can be more
decisive
than rushing into decisions
you know taking gap here is
beneficial it’s not a bad thing we
see that it’s not a bad thing then why
it is so unfamiliar to us
and why people are being so judgmental
when it comes to
taking a gap year is it because we have
a stereotype that everyone should go to
university
if he or she wants to achieve something
like some point of success
and if they don’t do this this means
only one thing
they failed their entrance exams or just
they didn’t even try because they knew
it would be a failure
but who said the only way of being
educated is attending university
after all there are so many formal and
informal ways of education
and really not everyone is going to be a
doctor
lawyer teacher etc
and who said you should know what you
want to do the rest of your life
at that age like what if you don’t know
it is because of this stereotype that
hundreds of students
and to universities without even knowing
what they
want in life and why they study this or
that profession
and you know after a couple of years
they just end up working in a completely
different field
starting just all over again
it also happens that when the students
grades aren’t high enough to enter the
faculty they desire
they just enter to a completely
different faculty in order to just stay
at university
and maybe escape from criticism
coming from public friends family
my point is to show you how some social
norms can
slow down and hinder the development of
the nation
maybe there were one significant but
times change
and that’s why we must reconsider our
perceptions
you know it’s not okay to be
disconnected from the world just because
of the fear
of losing some values coming from ages
it’s better to explain the importance of
it rather just than
banning other ideas to occur to us
public opinion
and the pressure coming of it don’t
change over a few
days but if they change then only as a
result of the struggle
of strong individuals today
i’m not offering a specific solution
really but i believe that every time
we speak about it it brings us one step
closer to the solution
and as it was in my case another
person’s experience
can be the very stimulus for you to
prosper
and this is how the chain reaction
begins
gap here was just an example one of the
thousand reasons why we shouldn’t hurry
why we should live our own lives leave
it to the fullest
and instead of using some patterns
created by society
we are the only decisions makers of our
own lives and the only ones responsible
for our future
if you are a teenager i hope this is an
inspiration for you
not just to rush through your university
but to stand still
to take your time to stand still and
develop yourself
coming back to my story as i said it’s
not a story of failure
it’s a life-changing realization that
sometimes
taking it slow can be more of a gain
than a loss
it can be more of a success than just
feeling lagged behind
no matter where we are at in your
journey you won’t get anywhere if you
are rushing yourself into the ground
so it’s the time to take a step back and
assess
what we are doing and where we are going
and we’ll see
then when we focus on the actual journey
the satisfaction is sure to follow thank
you