I took a little time today to read some of the posts of my housemates, and I have to say I’m impressed. Not because I have any right to be, but because what started out as a foolish way to make money (Akshay, Hassan, and me on the stairs one evening), has turned into something so much more important. I can see the people in our house, including myself, using this as an avenue to share their thoughts and feelings that don’t usually come out of a guys mouth. While all of us at etnanine are great friends, guys aren’t usually ones to share some of the things I’ve read on this blog. We might have our emotional moments at times, but usually these are far and spread apart as well as incomplete. This isn’t to say guys don’t have deep conversations, I know we do all the time, but complete, articulated emotional thoughts like the ones I’m reading on etnanine are hard to come by from any guy. I know Akshay and recently Pavan started blogs partly (or mainly) for the purpose of sharing their thoughts and feelings that can’t come out through any other means. I dabbled in this as well with my old blog at shuklap.googlepages.com, which I think is still active. This blog for me is showing me a whole new perspective on some of my good friends that I never would have seen. These posts are adding an aspect of vulnerability to my friends and myself that guys are trained to avoid. This vulnerable side to guys is usually only revealed to close significant others and really good friends if at that, and I think it’s amazing that we are willing to now share this side with effectively the entire world (or anyone that can get on the Internet and surf to our site). Props.

On that note, I wanted to share something I’ve been thinking about recently. As a precursor, I didn’t realize or remember when I decided to write about this that Hassan’s latest post gets at much the same point I do (I think I read his post a couple days ago), but I still wanted to expand/share my thoughts because I’ve been having them for a while now. All of us at some point or another have failed to do something simply because we were afraid we would fail. It sounds irrational yet it is a disease everyone falls prey to at some point or another. Whether it be to speak up in defense of someone when you know you should, or join a club, or run for a position, or try something new, or practice that much harder, or study that much harder, all of us at some point have fallen short of our potential. Economics has taught me at least one valuable life lesson, in that you can’t compare what you’ve done to anything absolute, but rather to your potential. Not studying that extra hour that could make a difference on a test is a failure. If you know in your conscience you have studied everything possible only then can you truly reach your potential. Some of you might be thinking that not studying hard enough is just a sign of laziness, but I think there is more to it than that. Part of it might be the fact that all of us are somewhat lazy, but I believe that, at least for me, sometimes I’m afraid that I won’t do well after trying my hardest, and that isn’t a realization I want to come to, so I avoid working my hardest just to not prove myself insufficient. I’m not sure if anyone else knows what I’m talking about, but it’s something that I am going to work to change.

After a recent conversation at home with some old speech and debate friends, some of which are still in high school speech and debate, I’ve realized that I miss debate a lot. My goal either for next semester or next year is to give college-level Parliamentary debate a legitimate shot because I know I will regret not doing so once I graduate.

I want to wish everyone good luck on their finals, and I hope everyone that is reading this blog has a relaxing, refreshing break back at their respective homes. That isn’t to say that I’m hoping that people who aren’t reading this blog have a bad break, but you get my point.

-Prashant