Degree, skills or exposure
WHILE looking outside the window of my life journey, recalling all the essential pieces of the puzzles that have completed my personality, I give weightage to the exposure I have had in my life that has shaped me the way I am today.
I am a successful working woman who enjoys a good social circle. I wa s born with many innate talents and was lucky enough to get a good degree.
Still, I was never a complete person till I got all the exposure to good institutions, organizations, intellectual gatherings, books, articles and a healthy, conducive environment.
My degree was just a certification of the knowledge I acquired from an institution. I earned that through hard work, but for getting an excellent job in the future and not for learning.
What if we do not get a job in the same field?
Many of us, when we graduate and step into practical life, where there is a lot of social pressure to bear, you can hardly guarantee that you will get the job that you were dreaming about and relevant to whatever you were studying throughout your life in school and college.
However, if you get good exposure or, more precisely, a good opportunity with support, you can acquire the required knowledge in a noticeably short period.
Even a degree from an institution providing an excellent opportunity to explore and research gives you more room to flourish in confidence, knowledge and experience.
Good universities, where the latest methodologies are in practice with good exposure to research and development, produce a more prosperous, sound and intellectually bold generation than less elite universities with fewer opportunities and exposure.
On the other hand, skills were given preference by many people when talking about the increasing trend of unemployment even if they possess an excellent degree.
According to them, you will never be dependent if you are skilled. Again, in my humble opinion, if I were not exposed to the right environment, where my skills were not identified and polished, I would never have become the person I am today.
I never knew that I could write till I was given a platform where I could explore myself in this regard.
I gained confidence when I got exposure to good intellectual friends, got a chance to work with a great boss, and worked in a productive and supportive environment.
I learned through sharing and got my skills polished through healthy feedback. No skill can gain attention till it is gone through a series of practices and get a chance where you explore further.
If you are not exposed to the right environment, suitable instruments and right energy level, you will never be able to identify and polish the skill that is there inside you but not discovered.
The best way to have more exposure to enhance your knowledge/degree and skills is to explore and collaborate.
The more you explore, research or read, the more you will be confident to implement and practice.
When you open your mind, you absorb more, you get more flexible and you enhance your chance to adjust to the challenges of life more confidently and successfully.
This process of exploring leads you to a new vista of life from where you can bring in more brightness and wideness and a unique perspective of life.
Healthy exposure can make your dull life colourful with new meanings and energy to not only become socially active but makes you an excellent contributor to bringing change in the life of others too.
Collaboration, on the other hand, is another effective tool to get more exposure. You learn through sharing and collaboration.
When you realize, you identify your strengths and weaknesses. You are now more aware of ways to strengthen further and improve them.
Collaboration synergically affects the entire learning process and multiplies the outcome more productively.
—The writer is an educationist based in Islamabad.
