Transitioning into a 'professional life'

It was one of those usual Monday mornings. Waking up at 4 AM to catch a 6 AM flight for a 9 AM client meeting had now become a norm. With a reporting of at least 45 minutes before departure and a minimum of an hour to get into the ‘prim and proper get-up’ expected of any girl from a premier consulting firm, I was now well accustomed to a life of timelines. I woke up to my merciless alarm and sprang out of bed to get dressed. As I stood in front of my wardrobe, I realized that in spite of spending a handsome amount on a complete wardrobe change just 6 months ago, the ‘grays’ and the ‘blacks’ sometimes made me miss the ‘greens’ and the ‘maroons’ that I remember pulling on while heading out to college. But nevertheless, one just had to be stylish even in those ‘grays’ and ‘blacks’ and so jeans were replaced with formal skirts, tees with formal shirts and blazers, sneakers with closed heels and earphones with subtle jewelry. It has now been about 6 months and even before I realized it, I had transitioned into a new phase of my life; this phase called that of a ‘professional life’.


I hurriedly checked in my luggage at the airport and boarded my usual 6 AM flight. As I gazed out of my window, multiple thoughts started pouring in (one doesn’t have the luxury of such musings very often in consulting life, you see). Just 6 months ago, I was still a college girl; but now, life had changed. I had suddenly grown up in the past 6 months. I was already a partial owner of a house (a tenant) and my rent was comfortably taken care of by my sufficient bank balance. I had a chauffeur driven car and I stayed and dined at the most expensive restaurants of the city. Yet, sometimes, I missed my college days. I missed staying in hostel wings with friends you could always talk to without being judged. Friends and colleagues aren’t the same unfortunately. I missed staying up late nights to gossip or to watch ‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ over and over again or to just spend some time with myself. I missed admiring sunsets and playing badminton and I definitely missed speaking to more than the same 7 people in a day! The biggest thing, however, that I missed about not being in college anymore was that I just couldn’t call it a day by saying “I’m having a bad day!”

Ah! A lot had changed indeed. There were no imaginary demarcations of years into semesters for improving my scores; I just had to be better every day! Early mornings of traffic now replaced deep slumber during college days, afternoons of client meetings replaced classroom lectures, evenings of gym sessions replaced sports practices and nights of sophisticated dinners or extra work replaced crazy parties. I could now relate to the Dilbert comics easily and drank coffee more often in a day. I now read the Economic times daily and spoke a new language overflowing with consulting jargon. I now flew a particular airline and stayed at a particular hotel to accumulate points and had a new source of money in my account called ‘reimbursements’. Blackberry messenger had become the new way of communication and words like ‘taxes’ and ‘insurance’ actually started mattering! I was now conscious of being politically correct and was comfortable with office games (read office politics), an art unknown to me before. Further, I now had increasing responsibilities of not only managing my work but also my life with the people I love, which is certainly the biggest challenge of any working life.

It’s true that college days are some of the best days of life, but a professional life has its own lessons to offer. With the security of a growing bank balance and the independence of spending it the way I like, I now felt more empowered. I was now more assertive, had a clearer understanding of things around me and had preferences in many things, all traits of a mature person. I was now more responsible and more sensitive to people’s emotions which made me a better person. This whole transition had somehow helped me gain a clearer perspective and given me a sense of direction in life. That’s when it clicked me that I really had moved on in life and moved on for good. Content with myself, I smiled at the sky until I heard the flight captain announce that the plane was now preparing for landing. Coming out of my state of musings, I realized that I hadn’t read at all for the meeting due in about half an hour. I quickly opened my briefcase and started preparing for the day ahead.