Mystory@Ravi David Ullah: How I chose my course and career path – Challenges and learnings

I loved Commerce and wanted to develop a business-oriented mind, so I chose to study Commerce. I studied hard for my boards and got through to the best college in India, St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. The real struggle began afterwards.

Before I share my story, I want to say that I feel I would have done much better had I started studying from day 1.

After taking admission, I joined at a reputed BPO. Life was challenging as I had to prioritise my personal and professional life to get the best possible outcome.

When I entered the second year, my office shift timings changed from 1 pm to 10 pm to 5 pm to 2.30 am, which was a bolt from the blue. Life became troublesome as returning from the office around 3 am and getting up for college at 5 am was difficult. I somehow manage to sit for my third semester.

I knew I was not prepared for it and just took a chance. I got the biggest shock of my life. Guess what? I failed miserably in 6 out of 7 subjects.

How I managed to rise after falling

At work, I was handling a team of 50 members working with me. I was managing my family smoothly, as well. But it was difficult to balance work and studies and I did not know what to do about it. Finally, I decided to give up studies and focus only on work. It was not the right decision that I had taken. One day, while crossing the road of Park Street, I came across our college and thought why I gave up so easily. People die to study in this college and I would be a fool if I didn’t utilize this opportunity.

One night, I had a terrible dream. Someone asked me what I would do if call centers were to shut down. I had no answer as I only had a 12th standard certificate with little value. I took a decision overnight that I would study and complete my Graduation.

The next day, I walked in to the Vice Principal’s office with a letter requesting for re-admission. Thankfully, my request was met with a positive response. I am thankful to Fr. Dominic Savio for accepting my request. That day, I decided on my target - first to achieve 100% attendance and then to pass in all subjects.

Since I could not ignore my job either, I requested my manager to shift me to part-time and it was granted. After a few months, I sacrificed my lucrative job and joined Learning Spiral as a tutor. Believe me, it’s truly said, “God helps those who help themselves”.

I was regular in college, as I knew the importance of the internal marks. By God’s grace, I managed to achieve my target of 100% attendance along with an aggregate of 60% in my 4th semester exams. I would like to request my friends to be regular in college and try to get maximum marks in their internal assessment.

I would like to thank one of my professors, Prof. Arijit Ghosh, who helped us with extra classes and if was only because of him that I passed in Maths. Still, I had a long way to go. With the third year exams coming near, I had to prepare for it, current semester and all of my arrear papers. (one of 1st semester, 6 of 3rd semester, 3 of the current 5th semester and in total 10 papers) and it was the biggest challenge for me to pass in all of them.

Hard work paid off

After 3 months, when I came to know the result of my 5th semester I was in tears but happy. I had bagged 10th position in the morning batch and 18th rank in the entire BCom department. I had targeted to be in the top 10 list and was very glad to see myself there. The next good news came after 2 weeks when I got the results of my arrear papers. I passed 9 out of my 10 papers. I fell short by few marks in Maths. With the final semester ahead, I was preparing for my project on BPOs and my experience in this profession. So this time, the challenge was 2 practical papers and project presentation along with 1 arrear paper of 2nd semester. I worked hard once again.

After 2 months I got my results. I had scored 74 percent in aggregate with 91 percent in my project. I sailed through my arrear papers as well. I was now just one paper behind my Graduation dream. I gave my best and discovered that when you give your heart and soul to something it becomes possible. In spite of so many failures, I secured an Honours degree in BCom (Marketing).

I want to convey one message. Don’t give up on anything. If you don’t have the resources, trust yourself and your potential; it would build the required resources with time.

About the Author:

I am working at Ambuja Neotia Group as a Sr. Executive, Marketing, since the last five years. I am a Graduate with an honors degree in BCom (Marketing). I’m interested in writing motivational stories and videos.

 

Mystory is a new Shiksha initiative to provide students a unique platform to share their experiences right from college admission to career selection. Here’s your chance to get published on India’s leading education portal. We’ll be happy to publish your story.   Write in to us at: mystory@shiksha.com