Online Life and Tribe

I again sighed while looking at my schedule. I was slumped with work. And this was without taking into consideration the pre-reads and assignments. If you would have told me 4 months ago that I will be spending my days in MBA surviving on 4 hours of sleep, doing 6 hours of club and committee work, and gambling with academics, I would have laughed. I have always loved my sleep and refused to sacrifice it for anything. Academics have been my strength and as much as I love doing extracurriculars, all of them have been cultural activities.

I still remember, our first BYOC with seniors. They were telling us how it was our choice, whether we wanted 4 hours of sleep or 8 hours. Here we set our own expectations, and achieve what we want to. When I was interacting with them, I was thinking the whole time that I am not going to participate in anything other than the ADMAP committee, dance club, and my academics.

And then, along with classes, the clubs and committee orientation started. Each and every one of them looked so exciting to be a part of. Choosing one was proving to be difficult. I had to choose only one, as I was already struggling with academics and needed time to do that.

I started applying for some of them, hoping that I will be part of at least one. I ended up in 3 clubs, 1 committee (in which I had no idea what to do), and 1 fest.

I don’t think so that I would be lying when I say, I got overwhelmed. There were meetings till 2 to 3 am in the morning, I had no time to study and I was frustrated because of lack of sleep. I started thinking of dropping out of them one by one.

But then I started learning to reach out for help and realized how easy it was available. People in my dance club trusted and motivated me even when I was late to do the work. They understood each other’s situation and hence were flexible with deadlines, even if that means more time constraints for one of them or the other. Participants from my committee forcing me into break because they feel I am working overtime (which frankly is less than them I think). My Acad Group was ready to be flexible according to my timings for assignments, because I took up corporate competitions and they wanted me to concentrate on them also. People, whom I barely knew and had nothing in common with are ready to help me study and clear my doubts in the morning at 3 AM. Every day I get inspired, not only from people in my clubs or groups but everyone in my batch. There are people who are ready to fight faculties for their batchmates, there are people sharing notes without feeling insecure and calling each other just to clear doubts and make sure their batchmates’ efforts are not going to waste, there are people who are ready to call you because they think you need to let it out. They were not getting anything in return, but just a few moments of gratitude maybe.

I, now, exactly knew what the seniors were talking about when they said that we will need each other. Growth is a process, and even though one doesn’t realize it, they are growing by facing these challenges on daily basis. For me, it was very hard, but it became so much more bearable with my batchmates.

I, now, smile more often while doing my work and studies than I did three months ago. I feel so grateful, that even in such uncertain times, people are ready to stand up for each other. I hope to do the same one day. I mean I have changed a little and for the better in the past three months thanks to everyone around me, I am sure I will be a much better person by the end of the two years.