From charcoal to diamond

Sitting idle in class during a lecture, if I’m not asleep I sometimes think to myself…

People, like different elements on earth all have different natures. Some are harder while the others are soft. Some are reactive while others are just quietly inert. Some are more stable in the presence of others while others react in something else’s presence.

All in all, a persons nature can be compared somewhat to an element which is similar.

Among all the elements present, the nature of carbon somewhat gladdens me the most. Only because of its transition from coal to diamond i.e the persons’ natures, transformation from something common, useless, dirty to the hardest and the most beautiful form of it alive.

How does that happen?

Coal or any other carbon, when put under high pressure and temperature for a *very* long period of time becomes diamond- its purest form. Similarly, lots of great people, from almost nothing when they went through all the pain and the hard work they have achieved something great. Mind you- They worked constantly, never stopping. Had they stopped, their nature would be something else, not diamond.

Take for example Eminem. He started showing interest in music when he was 4, but only got a small name for himself when he was 17 (He joined the rap game when he was 14) and was still rejected by everyone. When he was 23, he released his first album which too didn’t really sell. Broke, He participated in the rap Olympics in LA when he was 25 and lost there too. A few producers who saw him there were impressed, but not until he was 30 and after a lot of hardships, pains, pains of his family, did he finally get true recognition for himself. The album “The Marshall Mathers LP ” was nominated for the ” Album of the years “, won 3 Grammy awards stunning critics and shooting down remarks to become a legend of rap, after 16 years of work.

J.K Rowling felt suicidal for a long period of time before writing Harry Potter- incorporating the sad parts of her life like the loss of her mother and her depression from her divorce. Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times before inventing the light bulb. Oprah Winfrey went from the most hopeless condition possible to become a very successful television producer, film producer and a writer. And there are many more others (the list goes on) who kept failing till they won – All of the same nature: Carbon.

The key to it was – to get up every time you fail, no matter how hard it is. Now this quote is easier said than done. When somebody fails, it is very difficult to get up and so easy to give up. But from what you can see in all their lives is that once they did get up, they were stronger than before. They absorbed the failure and most importantly learnt from it instead of letting it destroy them.

So I decided I liked carbon the best. Maybe second after Helium because of the fact that Helium makes nice things.

At this point I probably fell asleep, enough of mixing philosophy of the periodic table into my life. Sirs’ discussion of which metal would be harder, and a friend’s nature of being so stubborn triggered these thoughts.

For one, I hope that anyone who reads this, and is trying to achieve something and is under a lot of pressure, would not give up. Given enough time – in all the pain, I pray they grow stronger and more beautiful than ever.

Salmaan Taha Siddiqui

I am Salmaan, of house Siddiqui son of Khalid and Sharifa, the first of his name. Brother to Yaseen Siddiqui and twin to Luqmaan Siddiqui. I love reading, writing, learning as do everyone in Youthopia I guess. Additionally I am crazy about swimming

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