When confronted with pivotal life choices, I often find the simplest solution to rid myself of uncertainty is to resort to the principles of existentialism… that I am but an insignificant blot in the scroll of time, a miniscule object in a grander cosmos. This usually comes accompanied with several days of citing pretentious philosophy on the meaninglessness of life, much to the annoyance of anyone in my near vicinity. In ways my preoccupation with the gaping paradox that is life somehow serves as a distraction from the fact that I am required to make a choice, a decision, that may very well change the course of my future. I suppose in ways, contemplating the insignificance of my existence, is a slightly more morbid way of procrastination. For me, enveloping myself in grander problems somehow reduces the salience of making a decision.

Which is why I believe I’m fully qualified to offer advice to other teenagers on how they can handle the stress of making a potentially life altering decision. All humour aside, these just so happen to be the years when you’re asked to make a host of choices with massive implications.  “What do you want to study?”, “Where do you want to study?”, “Are you taking a gap year?”, “Are you thinking of studying abroad?”, the list seems endless. You’ve just begun to discover yourself, and suddenly you’re expected to be able to picture your entire future to the minutest of details. For those lucky few who’ve discovered their passions, (I consider myself honoured to have fallen in love with writing and journalism), these decisions seem effortless. But, what happens to the majority of the teenage population, the ones who are still finding themselves?

Cue the sudden onset of an existential crisis, the debilitating fear of the unknown, and the sudden hyper-awareness of your own possibilities. It happens to the best of us. For some, it’s a coping mechanism, for others an uncontrollable burden. To you I say, there is a certain beauty to uncertainty…an allure to oblivion. It means you’re still filled with passion… passion that’s teeming and bubbling and searching for a medium of expression. It’s searching for something to dive into, be that astrophysics or martial arts. All you have to do is find that medium. So, revel in the uncertainty, relish the sweet taste of not knowing, because that truly is the essence of being young.

Author: Dhrithi Arun from India.