It’s 2:35 AM on the 18th of January 2025 as I write this. Another 2 months, and I graduate. I can still perfectly recall the day I received the email saying, “Congrats – IIM Ranchi wants you – Welcome to IPM!”, and all the euphoria and anxiety that came along with it. It feels like going through a flipbook, recollecting everything the past three years have had in store for me, a 10-second rewind that doesn’t feel like a rewind at all. If I were to do it all over, I’d want myself to know these three things.
Thing #1: There is so much more to you than you think.
You are but a fraction of who you will be. There is so much more strength, nuance, wisdom, emotion to you than you think there is. No matter how bad you think you’ve messed up, no matter how lost and inconsequential you’re feeling, no matter how much it feels like the world is ending: it isn’t. The sun will come up, and with it, one day, so will you.
In 2020, making it to IIM Ranchi felt like an unattainable dream. Fast forward 2 years, I made it here (thank you, Prof. Viraj, if it was the interview that did it), and it wasn’t such a big deal anymore. Then, in my first term, winning a case competition felt like an impossibility. It happened (total credit to my teammates Khushi and Parth), and I thought, “Wow, it can’t be this simple; it was probably a fluke.” Then it happened another 3 times (wising a lifetime of free shopping trips to Riva for this) and I realized, well that wasn’t a fluke. In the second term of my second year, I was honored with the first-rank of my class. I thought, “Wow, this is amazing, but this isn’t happening again.” It did (Sannidhya, Hema – I love you).
A lot followed: my CFA, paper presentations at research conferences, designing merchandise for my batch, and some more.
The point being, at one point in time, all of these are things I could never have thought of, let alone imagined doing. Suddenly, I’ve done them all.
You are capable of so much more than you think.
So just turn that thinking brain off and go for it.
That brings me to thing #2 – when the going for it doesn’t go the way you wanted it to go.
Thing #2: There are no right decisions
Trust yourself enough to know that given a thousand parallel universes, you’ll be happy, successful, and fulfilled in each. The specifics will differ – the kind of work you do, the money you make, the people you’re surrounded by – but that has no bearing on what matters most to you.
When in doubt, and afraid of the consequences of the wrong decision, know there is no wrong decision – only a different path opening up for you – and you can never know what’s at the end of it because a million other decisions will decide that.
So when you’re deciding what committee you’re applying for – yes, that will 100% influence the entirety of your college life. I’d be a completely different person if it wasn’t for the MDCC and all the crazy that came with it (sidenote: the hugest shoutout to Kislay and Anushka). But that doesn’t mean the person I’d be if I decided on a different committee would be the wrong person.
tl;dr: Spend less time thinking about that decision; and more executing it.
Thing #3: In all the madness; remain serene, remain grateful
As you keep taking those decisions, the specifics will change, but the madness will remain. In that madness; remember, anything that can be done with stress and pressure can be done 10X better without it.
I wrote CAT with a 1000 kilopascals of pressure on myself – failed miserably. I wrote GMAT with 2 weeks of prep – went wonderfully. There are a thousand more parallels there. Beyond a point, the cortisol’s doing nothing for you.
So go on a walk at 2:00 PM, stare at the sun, touch some grass. Feel the cold winter wind, listen to poetry, go people watching. Let your inconsequentiality in this wholly indifferent world of 8 billion more like you sink in. Maybe then boulder on your shoulder won’t seem so large anymore – throw it away, you can, it’s a stone.
You have all five senses intact, a sound mind, a place to sleep at night – you’ll figure the rest of it out. In that madness, remember to feed your soul, and most of all, know how blessed you are to be able to be a part of that madness.
Phew, 3:47 AM now. Still another 2 months to graduate – a fact I still feel unsettled about. But one thought brings me to ease – 2 years later, I’d have another 10 second flipbook to go through, and then another, and then another and so the cycle will continue. Throughout it all, this flipbook will stay me, whispering in my ear, “listen, no matter what, you’ll be fine” – and that means everything.
