my last day at IIMA
and a few updates.
I finally made it to Vienna. As much as I am happy to be saying that, getting everything in order was a struggle. I spent weeks writing emails to various offices and waiting for a positive reply to my applications. Eventually, all the applications were approved, but the process was gruesome. I still have to get a few things in order, but hopefully, things will work out.
I left IIMA with many memories, quite a few life lessons, and a bunch of good photos. For the first time, I felt like I am making a giant leap, making me feel quite grown-up, for better or worse.
Little did I know that the countless days and nights together would blossom into such beautiful friendships. IIMA taught me to be a little more human, if not for anything else. I remember reading a quote that said, “You don’t value people much while you’re with them. Only when you’re parting ways, do you realize how much they meant to you.” I found that to be true firsthand.
I had a long conversation with mom and sister, explaining how daylight savings time (DST) works and how much time difference we will have. This was perhaps the most challenging conversation I had had in a long time. Sometime during the call, I realized how much distance (both in time and space) my move would create. That made me choke up with emotions. I chose IITK and IIMA, keeping in mind the distance from home (the farther, the better), among other things, and here I was, getting all emotional.
It took me about a year to realize how much I missed life at IITK, I thought something similar would be true for IIMA, but I already miss living there. There was a sense of freedom that I could do anything so long as it did not disrupt the lives of others. I woke up early on my last day, packed the last few things, and had a nice lunch.
During my final semester of undergrad, we were asked to go home immediately as cases rapidly rose in Uttar Pradesh. Frankly, we did not get enough time to process all that was happening around us and say goodbyes. Maybe there are not proper goodbyes, but as I said, it took me quite some time to process everything. In contrast, I had multiple sendoff parties at IIMA, thanks to delays in my paperwork, to the point friends started asking when I would leave the campus.
Long after the train had left the platform and I took my place in the upper berth, I let the tears flow for as long as they wanted. I then got back to writing my essay and publishing it. You can read it here.
I hope you have a great week. If you enjoyed the issue, please leave a like and a comment.
A small note. If you are a regular reader of my newsletter, you might have noticed that I moved to Substack. I decided to move the newsletter because Twitter plans to discontinue Revue (where I previously hosted my newsletter) by the end of the year. It does not change anything for you. I’ll try to send out a new issue (almost) every two weeks.