Keep Calm And Let Things Happen

I’ve never been a believer in luck or superstition to any serious degree. Yes, it’s fun to sometimes get your ‘fortune read’, or do certain things in the hope that it will lead to something you desire, but for the most part, I believe that you make your own luck in this world. Things do just seem to fall into place at times, but that’s just mere coincidence, isn’t it? Maybe not, because the more I think about it, the more I feel there have been times when things have just happened when they needed to, and I’m a better person for it.

When I was 16, I wanted to study abroad after I graduated from high school. I was lucky enough to have a family that supported these plans, though in hindsight I’m not sure why I wanted to go abroad. I devoted all my energies for 2 years towards trying to get into just 1 university in Singapore, and in my mind, did everything I could to make it happen. It didn’t, and I was pretty crushed. It was my first real setback and truth be told, threw me off for a few years, where I didn’t really know what I was doing and was drifting along in life. Fast forward 5 years to 2012. With a pretty average degree in hand, having left my first job, I wasn’t so much better off than I was in 2007. But now, I was 23 and needed to steer my life in some direction. I had started applying to Indian B-schools and thought of going to the UK or Australia to study (again a pretty foolhardy decision) when, completely by chance, I stumbled upon this new program by SP Jain. I’d heard of SP Jain before of course, but not this one. Singapore and Dubai?

On a whim, I applied. Luckily for me, this was their first batch ever and they were pretty relaxed with their admission criteria. And so, life came a full circle for me, I was finally going to Singapore to study! And now I was older, and just a little bit wiser. I don’t know how it would have been as an 18-year-old back in 2007, but I’m glad I ended up going when I did after I’d had a few years of uncertainty, which knocked a bit of sense and worldliness into me. Oh, and did I mention I met Akanksha there, and the rest, as they say, is history 😊

A year and a bit later, in the spring of 2014. It seemed like a lifetime had passed since the high of getting into SP Jain and the happy times in Singapore. I was now in Dubai, completing an internship where I took 2-hour lunch breaks just to make the day go by faster, and the time on my visa was running out. I didn’t particularly want to go back to India at that stage, especially since Akanksha had got a job, and we were entering a crucial phase of our relationship. Interview after interview came and went, and it seemed like I’d have no other option but to go back. I recently had a chance to go through my inbox from that time, and the number of emails I wrote, and the way I persisted made me feel both happy as well as sad to see.

Anyway, just when it seemed like I’d have to go back to India, where I didn’t have a job either, I messaged a contact in a last=ditch effort. Turns out he had a position available at a leading global research agency, one that I’d always wanted to work for. My first interview was bad, and I thought that this was yet another failed attempt. I was told by them to back to India, and wait for them to get in touch, which in my mind meant just go back to India, so we don’t have you here bothering us. But 1 week into being back home, I got an email with my offer letter. My dream job (at the time), and I could scarcely believe it. Would it have been better if it had happened a couple of months earlier? Sure. But would I have appreciated it as much if it had? Unlikely.

The third incident is also work-related, which kind of sums up how work-oriented my life has been, or rather our lives are. I got my first job in Canada after months of trying, which is par for the course for most new immigrants, whether that’s right or wrong is another matter altogether. For the first 5 months, I loved it. I was almost in some sort of trance, just absorbing everything around me, learning how things worked in corporate Canada, and making new friends and learning from some very smart people around me. And then, it just went south. The work slowed down, certain things happened at work that started to heighten my insecurities and anxiety, and for the first time in my life, I had to go to therapy, something that I had ridiculed in the past. Therapy helped me, but the work didn’t pick back up, and while in hindsight this should have been something I was prepared for, I was still shocked when I got laid off 8 months into the job.

It sucked, and I felt like the biggest loser in the world. I’d worked so hard to get my first job in Canada, and now through no fault of my own, it was over. That night, I’d started applying to jobs, more out of hope than anything. There was this company I’d seen before, but not paid much notice to. They weren’t even hiring, but I had nothing to lose and decided to write to the HR. Surprise surprise, she replied, and a week later, I was hired. I’m not one for badass moves, but in my risk-averse world, that was possibly the most badass thing I’d done, at least professionally. And I still work here. It might not be the greatest job in the world, but it has what I needed at the time, and still do- stability. It taught me that stability is okay, it gave me the much needed mental break I needed from the everyday dread that had filled me in the last couple of months at my previous job. I feel wanted and respected in my team, something I haven’t felt much in my career. It’s opened up new possibilities for me, and will hopefully help steer my career in a new direction, something that I needed because I was stuck in an industry that was going nowhere. And would I have even thought of applying if I hadn’t got laid off? No way. Getting laid off sucked, but it was the right thing to happen at the time, and I’m so glad it did.

There have been more incidents, mostly minor, some which involve almost ending up in an airport on the wrong continent, and others which I don’t really want to write about at this time. Work still trumps luck for me, but I’m not as averse to just letting things happen when they need to. It’s taught me patience, perseverance, and most importantly allowed me to focus my energy and thoughts on things that really matter. Que sera sera.

Thank you for reading!