It Happens Only In The Psyche Ward

“What is learning, it's paying attention. It's opening you up to the big ball of shit that we call life. And what's the worst thing that could happen is you get bit in the ass.” – Uncle Ben. 

One man’s meat is another man’s poison. It works the same way when it comes to “accepting” a sense of responsibility or being “acceptable” to the idea of exploring the unknown and venturing into areas one might have envisaged about, as and when their seniors discuss about career matters. How an individual deals with this situation depends solely on their presence of mind, the willingness to accept challenges, to the breadth to which they are willing to stretch their capabilities to live an “out-of-the-box” lifestyle. The path they choose defines their personality statement on a positive note; on the flip side, it could pose a threat to their social circle – making or breaking a future. 

It’s interesting how we weave a career path, mapping it out even when in our mother’s womb. Call it a myth or a fact or even old grandma’s tales, but as they say, the unborn child is receptive to its mother’s thoughts and feelings even before being thrown into the outside. Concerns like the mother’s wants, needs and a vision of her child’s future are sensed by her fetus. Call them receptors or “thought transmitters,” but confiding within her, the baby probably gets mild or strong tingles depending on the intensity of the mother’s vision. 

Personality, motivation, ambition, career, etcetera, are more than just words; they form the underlying vision of the many students and career-oriented strata of society. Besides serving as a checklist to the prim-and-proper development of the aspirant, the four above denominations are perhaps few of the pressure-points authorities in educational institutions and companies press upon to try and analyze an individual various nodes of creativity and clarity. Heck, it is customary to have interviews with parents and students alike, in most educational institutions, even before granting admissions, starting right from kindergarten, if you please! Wake up to “the” revolution! 

If you were a parent, wouldn’t you want your child to go to the best school? I’m sure most of us agree. It’s a win-win situation for the parents and the children alike. Parents want the best for their child; children want to be associated to the bestest of the best, be it school, college, or a corporate setting. Young aspirants set their goals at being in the most happening place. To them it’s a combo-meal of content and prestige. It’s all about being at the right place at the right time. 

 

It’s ironic when your educational qualifications and career do not run on parallel tracks. You are probably qualified in Science and are probably working in a media related job. What would you call this; a twist of fate or just brush it off under the carpet, making no effort whatsoever to analyze what went wrong…or right? Perhaps it was your folks. They wanted their dreams fulfilled through their child by blindly assuming that they share the same dream. Till a certain age, children are pressed to live the graph outlined by their family and somewhere midway, most lose interest in the same, simply because their aspirations are a 360 degree turnaround from what their family desires of them and are probably unacceptable. Keeping this as the keystone, the Director, Steve Pink came up with “Accepted.”

 

The sting of rejection drives the human brain to concoct wild agendas and in the making of which, risking the life of innocent minds, oblivious to the fact that they enact the part of a guinea pig in a science lab. “An over structured Harmon University, which breeds nothing but stress freaks and caffeine addicts” -Scott Brown, EW 

 

The story revolves around quite a few characters, the main being Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long), Sherman Schrader (Jonah Hill), Hands (Columbus Short), Uncle Ben (Lewis Black), Monica (Blake Lively). It's interesting how Sherman plays second fiddle to the fickle agendas meted out by Bartleby, the mind behind the making of the fictional South Harmon Institute of Technology. It's all about a plan gone wrong, and then, terribly out of control. What starts off as a vengeance when colleges one after the other shunt Bartleby out, sees similar minds swarming in to this paradoxical institution, the foundation of which is a made-up web page. “Accepted is really about the triumph about the underdogs.” – Director, Steve Pink

The South Harmon Institute of Technology web page promotional attempts were an instant success, a surprise that came sooner than expected. The result: students dispelled by other colleges started pouring in by the minute at the S.H.I.T college that was put together by leasing an abandoned psychiatric hospital. The curriculum: drinking, sitting by the pool, skateboarding and of the sorts. This college is like a trap put together by Bartleby to satiate his ego perhaps?

 In the bargain, throngs of teens found admissions to a baseless future at the South Harmon Institute of Technology, oblivious to their parents. Suddenly Bartleby is responsible for the tomorrows and the decisions that go with them – the students, their families.

 The question remains, if this fake college did not come into being, there wouldn’t be any admissions whatsoever. Students and aspirants would have to struggle and strive to make it towards a bright future. There are no colleges and educational institutions that do not put across a positive mission statement: an evolution of mind and matter, body and soul. They exist to hone skills and not to curb the enthusiasm of the youth. If the foundation is strong, the outcome is success and glory. It’s important to take a stand when making a choice; you might have to live with it.

Bartleby might have made his point, but somewhere during the course of his pent-up emotions, he achieved nothing, he was left more confused and withdrawn than when he started out. To make it worse, when one goes down, they like to take down others with them. 

“Life is an unbroken succession of false situations.” - Thornton Wilder