The Blueprint

Being a student at the California State University of Chico, it is interesting to note that going to college was not something I wanted to do at first. In fact, going into my first year, I felt that the only reason for attending a junior college after graduating high school was because it was “the right thing to do.” I quote that in regards to my mother who would always drill it in my head that in order to succeed and have a better life, I should go to college so that way I won’t have to struggle like my mother has. I always nodded my head in agreement, but deep down I actually had no clue on what I wanted to do at first. It then hit me while I was listening to my favorite album The Blueprint by Jay-Z. I love music, so why not major in it? The only problem was that I wasn’t musically inclined. I never played an instrument in my life. So I was back to where I started from. I went to see a counselor to discuss about what schools had a music major but was more of a business focus. After some searching, turns out that Chico in fact had a Music Industry major which was something I was looking for. I found a mission and purpose in college. Coincidentally enough, the inspiration came from just a drive home listening to music. Almost divine intervention even. In Bharati Mukherjee’s Jasmine, there is an underlying theme of the idea of predestination versus free will. Do we really have a choice in how we live our lives or is there some force that controls our destiny? This question manifests itself in Chapter 9.

Jasmine’s father, Pitaji, dies in an horrible accident by being run over by a bull as he gets off a bus. Stricken with grief, Jasmine’s mother attempts to kill herself during the funeral. A friend a Pitaji counsels her mother, saying “When we get the job done, the Lord calls us home for the next assignment. (page 59) No matter what we do, there is a mission that God wants us to accomplish. Our bodies here are only a vessel of sorts to get what needs to be done. Once that our assigned tasks our complete, God will call us back for another plan he has in store for us.

Taylor, on the other hand, doesn’t share this ideology with his wife Jasmine. He thinks that a predetermined fate is “a formula for total anarchy. Total futility. Total fatalism. Where’s the incentive to do anything?” (page 61) After all, if our lives are already determined before we are even born, what’s the use of working hard to achieve a goal that one desires? Jasmine then counters by stating that the incentive “is to treat every second of your existence as a possible assignment from God.” (page 61) Just living every day to the fullest is the underlying idea that Mukherjee is getting across. One can’t dwell upon what God has in mind for us, for these “assignments are perhaps too vast for the human mind…” (page 59)

Another interesting point of view Mukherjee offers is that maybe our missions in this life aren’t important. The universe is so vast and infinite that not every individual can do something historical in his or her lifetime. “If the universe is one room known only to God, then God alone knows how to furnish it, how to populate it.” (page 61) Not all of us can become CEOs, multi-millionaire celebrities. We can only do what we can while we are alive.

Is it in my fate to find a career in the music industry as maybe a manager, a publicist, or even a CEO? I would certainly hope so. That’s why I’m in school anyways; to succeed right? Who knows. I may even change majors as time passes. I do have other hobbies that I do enjoy a lot and may want to make a living off them. Whatever the future may hold, I’m just going to enjoy every minute that I’m alive and expand myself while I’m in college.