This one is a really long one...Read at your own risk...
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On the outer, I looked very ambitious to all. Had to put up a brave and smart front to everyone, after all. But on the inner, I always was the timid 'small town girl' with a smartish head but few ideas of my own. So while I had heard of the word goals, I never had a clear opinion on them.
At a time when people were thinking of becoming Doctors, Engineers et al, I was still having fun writing articles. While everyone stepped on the entrance exams bandwagon, I crossed the dirty, cob-webbed, old newspaper stacked aisle of the Ludhiana office of Indian Express. Everyone else thought that their teens were the stepping stones to a career, I thought I already had one. Proud and happy to be getting a Rs.5k pay check per month after working college hours as a journalist writing sports stories, I never paid heed to anything that my friends mentioned about CAT prep and SATS. I thought this was my true calling and writing was my sole goal. All deadlines crossed and there I was with my pocket money and a stressed out face saying my goodbyes to friends departing for higher studies to Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, some even London.
That is when my Mom took charge of my life and told me to set my goals. I thought I couldn't be left behind alone in Ludhiana, again forgetting the goals and looked for courses in Delhi. Found one that suited both my parents and my interest (atleast for the time being, my intt was not staying back in the rat race to go out of Ludhiana) and off I was to FORE School of Management. Half way into the course, I was pretty sure this was my calling and soon getting a good job and settling down in Delhi seemed to be the goal. In the top 10 of my college course and a recommendation from the Dissertation prof later, I landed a job in Samsung earning Rs.10k. WOW! I had doubled my pocket money within an year. Though my parents had spent 3 years worth of this salary to get me there.
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On the outer, I looked very ambitious to all. Had to put up a brave and smart front to everyone, after all. But on the inner, I always was the timid 'small town girl' with a smartish head but few ideas of my own. So while I had heard of the word goals, I never had a clear opinion on them.
At a time when people were thinking of becoming Doctors, Engineers et al, I was still having fun writing articles. While everyone stepped on the entrance exams bandwagon, I crossed the dirty, cob-webbed, old newspaper stacked aisle of the Ludhiana office of Indian Express. Everyone else thought that their teens were the stepping stones to a career, I thought I already had one. Proud and happy to be getting a Rs.5k pay check per month after working college hours as a journalist writing sports stories, I never paid heed to anything that my friends mentioned about CAT prep and SATS. I thought this was my true calling and writing was my sole goal. All deadlines crossed and there I was with my pocket money and a stressed out face saying my goodbyes to friends departing for higher studies to Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore, some even London.
That is when my Mom took charge of my life and told me to set my goals. I thought I couldn't be left behind alone in Ludhiana, again forgetting the goals and looked for courses in Delhi. Found one that suited both my parents and my interest (atleast for the time being, my intt was not staying back in the rat race to go out of Ludhiana) and off I was to FORE School of Management. Half way into the course, I was pretty sure this was my calling and soon getting a good job and settling down in Delhi seemed to be the goal. In the top 10 of my college course and a recommendation from the Dissertation prof later, I landed a job in Samsung earning Rs.10k. WOW! I had doubled my pocket money within an year. Though my parents had spent 3 years worth of this salary to get me there.