As I stand by Lake Wannsee with two of my classmates, I am regretting the decision to visit the lake. Maybe I should just have stayed back and completed my assignment or maybe not!
“He’s way in over his head,” Enock comments upon seeing a child swimming in the lake. This reminds me of not long ago, during the final week of the spring semester, when I was “underwater” too. I was struggling in the Data Structures course because the workload was just too much with major assignments and quizzes due the same day. It was like I was drowning in a C of Data Structures. To top it all, I had grade issues in one of the assignments which meant that I was constantly afraid of not being able to pass the class and having to take it again. This constant stress obviously affected not just my mental health negatively, but also my focus, thereby affecting my work for the other courses too. Around the same time, Pakistan was facing political unrest and was on the brink of a civil war. With all this going on, it was like I had hit rock bottom. What I felt then was no different than what a child who doesn’t know how to swim would feel if they’d been pushed into a swimming pool without any prior warning. It felt like I had been underwater for too long and there was little chance of survival.
But then the day I had to fly to Berlin, my problems started sorting out. I passed the course and I no longer had immense academic stress. Also I found the idea of being in a new country surrounded with new people very thrilling and strangely comforting. Berlin was like the coast to me! I’ve learnt that life will throw you underwater often and life’s all about learning to ‘swim’ your way out of trouble.
The fish is struggling outside water, and I’d struggle underwater. This means that some situations might work out for some individuals but not others. At the end of the day, it’s about being resilient and trying to push through!