//Graduation for High schoolers

Graduation for high schoolers is a sour sweet time of life, no more homework, no more 7 class rigid schedule and no dress code for the rest of life. And the best part is that your dreams are still intact. After my first year of being in the university, when high schoolers visited our campus I felt like an animal in its natural habitat.

Little do they know how dreams are crushed in the "adult world".

I was at the bank depositing a check that my dad gave me and the cashier checked on the box 'adult', a shiver ran down my spine with the cold realization, I am an adult. My life is no longer just dedicated to selfish me, but actually has the power to impact society. I have to pay taxes, I don't know how to pay taxes. I will have a degree which shows  can "adult" as a part of the nation's hardworking, responsible, and successful workforce.

And here is a 17-year-old thinking he can conquer the world cause he graduated a systemized school system which ranks 36th in the world. I agree, you should be happy for completing a stage in life, but you should realize there is a crap load ahead of you.

I will correct myself that the "adult world" doesn't crush dreams, but it definitely put several roadblocks and challenges which test ones' determination for how bad do you want to achieve that goal in life.

Coleman, M. (2013, December 3). New survey ranks U.S. students 36th in the world - How do we improve? : News : CNYcentral.com. Retrieved from http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=978874#.VXNAJc9Vi3I

Uttrayan: The Kite Flying Festival

Sometimes, you just miss home

“We must not think of the things we could do with, but only of the things that we can't do without.” 
 - Jerome K Jerome. 

Home is one of them.

Happy Spring break people

Rain In January

It rains in Houston in January...did you expect poetry out of this?

Nope, it just rains in Houston in January, simple as that. Same goes for College Station, it rains anytime over there. Rain in France for the fallen writers. Rain in Indonesia for the lost and gone airlines. Rain in India with the record breaking cold which took the lives of many. Rain in Dallas too, not from clouds but mainly from the fans of The Cowboys who lost to The Colts in the playoff to go to the super bowl. (I was rooting for the Colts in this game)

That being said all my close friends are Cowboys fan, this includes my roommate as well.

So just for them,,,,

Well I am just happy that the Aggies won the Liberty Bowl.

I never followed football so much before college started. Coming from India, I never was interested in it, I still had cricket, so unless I was bored enough to turn on the TV to watch a 300 pound guys truck through another 300 pound guy, I did not watch football. But as I went to Aggieland in senior year of high school and had a look at Kyle Stadium, a passion for football came in from nowhere (Thank you Johnny)

Like any other calculus concept, the moment I get interested in a topic, I try to read and catch up with trends. It is very difficult to do that with this sport for me cause there is too much to read through. The history cherishes some beautiful rivalries which has brought many players, coaches, and fans alike together as a people to come, watch a good sport and have a good time with loads of beer and nachos, together with victors and losers.  That is awesome! You don't see that where I come from until the ICC World cup starts.

And then there is fantasy football! My God that thing is awesome, I don't know how to play it and I don't understand the points system in it, but to think that every fan can have their dream team, Again, I don't know the rules, but apparently if you are good at it, you can make other guys who play against you wear tutus and have them walk around campus. (That's a nice game)

But again, the world in chaos makes me overlook these things and takes me back to the fact that its raining in January....that's a little gloomy for the beginning of a new year. But I guess what ever happens, happens for good.

//Slow Start

       So I have started this blog before my second semester starts. My first semester was not the best, but there is no one to be blamed for that but me. I could have done better, but what is done is done. Now, there are other close friends who may disagree with me on this fact of my first semester, but its not academics, its rather other activities which I feel bad about. I always thought college would be the time when I get to do other stuff besides academics.

     Even Robin Williams said in his movie The Dead Poet's Society as John Keating

   "We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?"

    So I threw myself into college to write my verse as a happy-go-getter to meet people, paint paintings, find passion, but did not know where to start. So I did the first thing that popped in my mind.
    I joined the billiards club for that purpose. I didn't stop playing or practicing on campus. I have a record with my brother somewhere in the log-books at the commons for checking out a set for 10 straight hours. Free time meant billiards time to me. Let me tell you this sport does not allow romance if only one person is good at it. Then it just becomes "Hey! look how good I am at this thing with the long stick and the nitrocellulose balls" Ping pong is better in college for romance. So I liked the sport, but couldn't attend most of the meetings as the club met on Sundays at an off-campus location. So that deal cut me short.

    I joined American Society of Civil Engineers, but the meets were held at 6:30pm on Wednesdays, and I had some sort of moronic epiphany before the year started to only have night time classes for Mondays and Wednesdays. So even the club I so passionately loved was cut off short.

   Then lastly I had myself the Steel Bridge club, which was right after the ASCE meetings. (As I type this I realize these clubs tie me back to academia and I have not escaped to a "other" activity except for billiards. Now you know why I feel a bit sad inside)   Steel bridge was the club I was and still am the most passionate about, but I faced problems of being a freshman and not knowing anything.

   So the first semester is a story of a lot of disappointments, and a verse of tragedy, including to deal with my best friend dropping out and going back to Illinois, never-the-less I met some wonderful people, walked across my campus bare-foot in thundering rain (3 times) and went to watch the most amazing band in the nation, the Fighting Texas Aggie Band (The always win half-time) with some wonderful people.

    Although college has been an awful slow start for me in my own terms. As I have turned 18 now, I hope I'm not seen as a little kid anymore, It seems that my age is a factor which causes others to leave me behind or ditch me from their plans for some reason. (I swear this blog will get happier soon) However I have learned how to deal with mid-terms, talk with professors, and pull 3 all-nighters in a row and survive the fourth day.

  When one door closes, another one open up, it is your job to stand up, stop staring at the closed door, and go through the open one and MOVE ON

    So as this next semester is about to start in 5 days, this blog will get merrier with it, and I'll be able to write my verse very soon. 

A New Beginning

Howdy, my name is Bhavik Shah, student of engineering at Texas A&M Univeristy. So I start this blog today on my birthday as a hope and promise to myself, to record and share my thoughts and get some feed back on what others think on it. Keep in mind these are just my views, nothing right or wrong, just my opinion on things. "Offense in taken and not given"- Jimmy Carr; as in such I am trying my best  for no one to be offended with my manner of thinking, yet if you are, I cannot do anything about it. With that being said, lets start this ride to a new 2015, as the first week of this new year is over and I turn 18. This going to be one heck of a year. Gig'em