John decided to visit his collage first. He wanted to apologize to the Principal and hopefully revoke his expulsion .He knew it was futile but he wanted to give it a try . He quickly adjusted his attire and walked towards the collage.

As he neared his collage his heart was started beating wildly. If it was before he would have prayed that not to encounter any of his ex-classmates. But now he has nothing to loose. ’At most what would happen ? Mock me? Let them … I can choose to not give a damn. It is up to me whether I want to be hurt or not.’

He swaggered with his head held high to the Principal office. Strangely no one he knew came in is path. He slightly opened the door of Principal and asked “Excuse me sir, may I come in?”

“Come in” a deep voice replied.

John calmed his heart before entering the cabin and slowly walked in front of Principal’s table. He realized that there was one more person in the cabin apart from him and the Principal. He was one of his lecturer who seated on a visitor seat in front of the Principal.

John said instinctively “Good afternoon sir” and without waiting for his reply he turned to the Principal and said the same thing.

The Principal didn’t know who he was but the lecturer seemed to recall. Lecturer was surprised all of a sudden “Aren’t you the one who got suspended for cheating in the exam recently?”

John admitted it honestly “Yes sir, it was me and I deeply feel sorry for what I have done. I came to apologize for my misbehavior.”

The Principal who didn’t say anything till now raised his eyebrow slightly and observed my every reaction like a hawk. He said without any emotion “What is the point of apologizing now ?I can’t revoke my order after it is passed”

John felt slightly disappointed .Since he already expected the outcome .He reverted back to his calm self again and said respectfully “I know it is pointless but I don’t want to leave this collage like a looser who is afraid to face his own mistake .I express my sincere thanks for what I have learned in the past 3 and half years and seek forgiveness for my misbehavior. Sir, please accept my deepest apology .”

John bowed without any hesitation in front of the Principal and the lecturer and turned around to leave. He took a few steps towards the door before he heard the Principal’s voice.

“Stop there. Come back”.

John’s whole body shuddered for a moment. He didn’t why but felt nervous all of a sudden . He turned around and saw strange gazes of 2 people. He didn’t try to avoid eye contact instead calmly returned their gazes.

There are 2 reasons for his fearlessness. One , he knew once the experience points turn negative he would die. Two , he had nothing to loose from being courageous .He had literally lost everything.

Both the Principal and lecturer admired John’s courage in their mind. They looked at each other and nodded to themselves. John was clueless ,he was just standing there like a robot. After a period of silence the Principal asked curiously,

“What changed you all of a sudden ?”

John thought for a while and answered without holding back “I experienced some events in the past one and half month which really opened my eyes. I was running aimlessly in search for marks without knowledge, respect without being honest , good life without any effort and as a result I lost my good friends , my part time job, opportunity to study in this collage. I even went as for as to take my own life. Fortunately I encountered a monk in the beach and he made me realize ,how important are the Values like honesty , truth, courage. I am just just following his teachings.”

Both the Principal and lecturer were shell shocked. They knew John was just 21 year old but to go through all those things in such a young age ! They didn’t know what to tell for a very long time . The Principal seemed like he made a hard decision and said

“I will allow you to collage one last time and take care of the paperwork. But remember it is your last chance. You can prepare for supplementary exams next week .”

John felt like he heard divine words from the heaven. He was so happy that he wanted howl like a beast but he somehow controlled his emotions and clenched his fists tightly .He bowed again to express his sincere thanks.

“ I won’t disappoint you Principal.”

The Principal nodded with a rare smile “Hope so”

When John left the cabin ,Lecturer who watched everything silently asked in curiosity “Old pal ,don’t you think he might be acting?”

The Principal let go of serious expression and turned to a normal man .He said with a laugh “I don’t think so .The look on his face can’t be faked unless he had gone through hard time. I always believe in my gut feeling .When I saw his determination I had a strange feeling that he would achieve great things some day .Like a feather reaching heaven along with the bird. Our collage might get good reputation too. Moreover our job is to give students opportunities to fly not shackle them to Earth. ”

Lecturer nodded with an agreement “I also feel so. He is not shying away from facing his mistake and ask for forgiveness. As teachers we also need to face our own foolish ego and learn to forgive. Regardless of his future achievement I am glad I have learned a new thing from this chap.”

The Principal smiled while stroking his beard. One day he would be so glad for his decision that day that he would brag his intuition to everyone and is collage reputation would soar to new heights but of course it would be in the future.

John was strolling excitedly in the campus .Suddenly he heard a familiar voice in his head.

[Congratulations user .You have unlocked ‘PROACTIVE’ earned 20 experience points on all the 4 Values. Eva hopes user to continue to work hard]

John immediately looked at his display

[Name :John(level-0)

Values : Truth ……………exp(20/100)

Honesty……….exp(20/100)

Courage……….exp(20/100)

Proactive……..exp(20/100)

Note: If user’s experience goes negative ,Eva will self destruct]

John was pleasantly surprised. He now understood how system really worked. He became more curious about the rewards he would be receiving upon leveling up. He said to himself ‘Its not far’. A smile crept from his lips .Somehow he became optimistic towards his future.

Suddenly he remembered the face of Jake and his entire body shuddered with fear. He realized that he was far from any sort of optimism.

‘What’s the point of having a bright future if I die tomorrow.’ He thought for a while and decided to open suggestion panel

[Suggestion panel

Consistency is the mother of success. One should not be too happy for a small win or too sad for a small failure.

As humans we face problems the moment we are born. Eating less is one problem(malnutrition) and eating more is another problem(obesity). Playing little is one problem (tag of loner)but playing more is another problem(tag of irresponsible).Getting less marks is one problem(tag of stupid) but getting more marks is another problem(isolation from friends).

Our every action is a problem one or the other way. Who decides we are right? Yes ,societal norm. The norm is formed to please the majority .What about minority? They need to carve out their own norm that is respected by the society otherwise they will be isolated and denied resources from society.

First step to solve any problem is to recognize that there is a problem. Denying the problem or postponing will induce more variables in the problem .So, solving it as soon as possible would be the best course of action.

But to solve any problem we need a reference .We can’t blindly follow what everyone in the society does . Society recommends shortcuts , tried and tested methods . But it does not explain the meaning behind the action. We are not robots to follow algorithms or conditioned responses.

Let me give you an example :Suppose a person ‘A’ accidentally injure a person ‘B’.’A’ immediately say sorry to ‘B’ as a conditioned response. Then ‘A’ moves on as if nothing happened. Did ‘A’ genuinely feel sorry? Surprisingly ‘B’ doesn’t care ,he is more than happy to receive a sorry and in a hurry to move on.

Unfortunately this incident doesn’t end here .’A’ does the same mistake again the next day and the day after next day to ‘C’ , ‘D’ etc. Why is this happening ? I call it , ‘false societal reference’.

Yes, the reference I am talking about is Values. Many people don’t have references in their conscience .They repeat the same mistakes again and again . Values guide our action and act as benchmark . Mistake will just be a mistake if a person is driven by Values but for others it is way of living.

Reference is created by education and experience . Next step is following gut feeling. Remember it is just a product of the reference you have created. For 90% of people gut feeling won’t yield good result because their Value system is flawed . Their references are flooded with prejudice , fear , insecurity .

You don’t need to worry since your Value system is getting redefined . All you need to do is trust your heart. ]

John was enlightened by the insights given by his virtual master. He can’t help but worship him in his heart . ‘Since I have the Value system ,I should trust my heart .’ But in his heart he knew he was still a long way to go from completely trusting his gut feeling since as of now he had only 3 Values. He was far from having a solid foundation.

‘ Since it is already evening I can rest today and go to nearby police station to seek some guidance.’

He wanted to get rid of the hanging knife on his head as soon as possible as he understood without life everything is useless. He took an auto and directly arrived at his former workplace to retrieve his bicycle.

’Life is strange ,yesterday I was still an employee with no future but now …..sigh.’ He decided to properly apologize to Peter before returning home. He didn’t care about what others thought about him any longer.

’Uncle Peter helped me a lot .I can’t simply destroy a relationship and move on. Lets at least try to resolve it before I give up ’As he proceeded to enter the restaurant, his Phone started ringing.

“Hello ,this is John , who am I speaking to?”