You are working on a project and you make something out of your own hands by giving it your blood and sweat. And while you submit it to your class teacher you find out that all this while this random dude you have never seen before has copied the same thing you did and is submitting the same with almost no shame in his eyes. Have you been there or have you done that?
If it is one thing that repents me the most, it is the lack of originality. Why can't people just be original? Why do they have to do the same thing someone else does? If you are going to thieve from someone's work, at the very least acknowledge! There is nothing wrong in citing others' work, its wrong when you copy and reclaim it as your original work.
I am not talking about only copying work, but decisions, character and thoughts too. Yes! I have seen hundreds of people redo what others have decided to, and the same applies for character and thoughts too. You might have a safety net knowing that a decision would work for you because it worked for others. But it pains me when I see someone who is not excited to take a completely new path but chooses one that has been trodden before by the hundreds. People often spend most of their lifetime chasing what others have done before, thinking the same things others have already thought of. People make similar life choices as compared to their friends and family. They choose similar education, jobs, investment options and more. But what if you could take a new path every time, one where anything can happen, where you could win big or lose big too. Isn't that exciting enough to make that choice? Why do you need a safety net? There is a better rush when you don't have one. Please don't do the same things thousands of people have already done before. Pick a new thing, a completely new path, take it, never look back and enjoy the process!
As a fitting end, I'd like to quote Robert Frosts' "The Road Not Taken" on this post:
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Danush S, 9 January, 2021.