The Road At The End Of MBA Term-1

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us.” – Charles Dickens

As most of us have already crawled, sprinted, cried and mounted our way up through MBA term-1, some of us can find themselves with even more questions than what they had upon commencing MBA. Such is the oblivion that MBA first-year students are living in now. However, all being said and done, there are various certainties from where we can find some soothing.

We all are better, stronger, more resolute & focussed, though most of us have still no clue as to what our direction will be ahead in academics selection and career in upcoming months. We have made many friends and some enemies too. Our lingo has changed with the presence of phrases like GLOBE, DCP, BAKAR, loafer etc.! We have realised that the sacrosanct deadlines can be both, dreaded and full of fun to chase.

Despite not been able to add many college-related points to our CV in the last 3-4 months, our placement preparation teams have somehow changed its face completely. With summer internship process been mostly over or ongoing in various colleges, we got to feel the sleepless nights and carry amongst ourselves both, a sense of frustration and resolution to make the best of the situations. In the process, we made even more friends and a few (more) enemies. We were struggling to store our term-1 books in our hostel room and yet anyways started carrying the weight of term-2 books.

Yet a part of us will still feel insecure. Scared of what lies ahead, you may question your life choices, viz., taking a liking for a particular subject, clubs, committees, or a person(s). You may feel bad for loafing around in your group activities. Last but not least, you may be wondering about the ultimate question: Is it all worth it? If not yet, WILL it all be worth it when all of this ends by April 2021?

If your eyes got stuck on the last line for even a moment, fear none as you are not alone in this big crowd. We all joined our MBA colleges feeling a sense of need for distinction, to find our unique place for our talent and hard work, and yet 100% of people around us are MBA students! On a serious note, it is easy to get lost, to feel burnt up with the rigour of this course. Things will start to seem irrelevant. All those batch meets, CV and GD/PI sessions may have a draining impact on your psyche. But these changes are an appetiser for what lies ahead of our lives AFTER MBA.

MBA is not about just management, but it’s about life itself. After living on Earth, revolving around sun for more than two decades now, the course gave me an opportunity to realise my hidden depths of talents and faults, brilliant and worst decisions, alike no matter how trivial they felt earlier. It made me realise, again, that I reached this milestone in my life not because I got bogged down, but because I persevered through my miseries.

This is the life we chose. It may be too late to look back and daydream about our past choices on how they could have been made differently. But I assure you that the certitude and darkness, both alike will continue to guide our inner sense of commitment. All I ask of you is to persevere and refuse to backdown. It’s ok to be uncertain of your future. I know I am. But the honourable thing to do now is to be ready with the skills and intent that you must possess at first sight of that opportunity when you would realise you were looking for all this time.

Lastly, whenever it starts getting dark in that anxious mind of yours, remind it of all the effort it has put and look how far you've come..... and then Keep Going.