Madhavraj P.
Photography by Shawn Bulloch
If you’re reading this, it is okay to be a work in progress.
Growing up, I always wanted to know precisely what the next day would bring. I disliked it when anything felt uncertain or cloudy. Not knowing what lunch would be the following day wasn’t such a big deal at the time, but the habit of needing certainty grew stronger as bigger choices came along, like deciding the next steps in my education or career.
When I started high school, I didn’t pay much attention to school itself. Instead, I spent countless hours playing outside, laughing with my friends, and filling my days with the things I enjoyed. I never cared to join the future-focused clubs that many of my peers gravitated toward. But when the moment came to start thinking about my career, I faced one of my most stressful realizations. I believed I needed to have everything figured out and be ready for the “real world.” The truth was, I feared the responsibilities of adulthood. I wanted a perfect, crystal-clear answer to every doubt, a certainty that simply didn’t exist.
Somewhere in that process of searching, though, I stumbled upon one of the most freeing truths: it is entirely okay to be a work in progress. Not every question has to be answered. Not every doubt has to be cleared. The little uncertainties of life are what make it exciting. As much as I wanted to have everything in order, I realized it would be boring if I already knew exactly what was coming next and how to prepare for every step. Since then, this idea has stayed with me. Whenever I feel overwhelmed by the weight of the future, whether that future is as close as next week or as far as ten years from now, I remind myself that uncertainty is not something to fear. It is part of the process. We are meant to grow, change, and discover along the way.
That is why everyone should embrace being a work in progress, because that’s where the beauty of life lies.
Madhavraj P., University of Georgia
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