A walk down memory lane - Parul Rane, NMIMS Mumbai

Part B: How you overcame challenges to achieve your ambitions in life so far

I completed my bachelor’s in engineering and started working. After a couple of years, I wanted to pursue higher education. Studying in a top B-school was my ambition in life but working towards it was a difficult task. I decided to appear for entrance examinations and prepare for them. This was the most difficult challenge; my workplace was on the outskirts of the city I lived in. It would take 5 hours of total commute for work every day, work and commute would drain me completely by the time I reached home. The traffic made it worse, I had no preparation time for the entrance examinations, and this made achieving my ambition look impossible. However, I was motivated to overcome this and get admission to a reputed B-school and that too in a single attempt. Apart from the weekends I could not get anything done. Once sitting in the cab and gazing out of the window, tired and waiting for the traffic lights of a long signal to go green, I saw a little boy selling umbrellas at the signal. Now this is a very common scenario in a city, however what made it interesting was when the signal turns green the boy would wait on the pavement and read from a small book. I was astonished at his dedication and his obliviousness to the surroundings. I was inspired by his eagerness to learn and realised I have been given the “gift of time”. These 5 hours I spend sitting in the cab during commute could be put to better use. If that little boy can do it on the pavement, I can surely do it in the air-conditioned cab. I started reading up and solving little problems on my phone during this time, thus preparing for the entrance exams. I scored very well and secured admission to achieve my ambition.

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