Manifesto

I wrote this for my semester-end class assignment, but I believe its significance is more than just a lousy grade. Hence, it deserves being a part of my blog. :)

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Growing up, I had always had the perception of English as that other language that I had to learn. As I made my way though middle school and then high school, it became more and more obvious that English was going to form an integral part of my academic and professional world. After coming to college in US, the degree with which I use English makes me feel as if it is my first language. Granted, I don’t possess the superior writing or reading skills most native speakers do, but there is nothing stopping me from working towards that skill set.

Management Communication 320 was that stepping stone in my life that made me recognize that potential leads to accomplishment; and potential, there is abundance. I had always considered myself a numbers’ person–you give me a complex equation, I’ll swing my magic wand and produce something fancy–and this feeling wasn’t so similar with words, unfortunately. So, I came to this class half hearted, reminding myself that this isn’t my domain–no home-court advantage.

Soon, I began recognizing the importance of everything we were being taught. I could see myself using all the tools of interviewing, memo-writing, and presenting in all stages of my professional career. This realization was the perfect motivation. For instance, PAR stories, worth 10 points to my class grade, yet worth so much more to my career development. This made me wish that if only all my classes could feel like this, I would be so much more dedicated.

I can surely say that the importance I used to give to writing has increased dramatically since I’ve taken this class. I have learnt to channel my writing skills towards producing better results; e.g., recognizing the purpose of writing, understanding the audience, using appropriate tone in writing etc. In the future, I’m certain that I will be required to write, even more than I anticipate now; probably not to the point of writing a novel (or maybe, who knows?), but definitely quite a lot. I’m certain that writing, or in the larger sense, communicating will form an essential part of my life. I hope that it is a learning process along the way, and that I keep improving my skills the more I do it.

A Kind Gesture

For this week's blog assignment, we were assigned to do something nice for a person who is managing a tougher workload than ourselves. As soon as I heard about the assignment, I knew who that person meant for me -- my very own roommate, Sameer Ahmad. As a Marriott School senior finance-major, Sameer's currently taking 20 credit hours, 15 of which are classes, 3 are an investments' internship and the remaining 2 for a case competition. As a sports fanatic, we follows and plays football very often. You would mostly see him on the phone connecting with his family, for whom he is very passionate about, or friends from all over the world. Alongside all this, he regularly takes out time for lunches, dinners and various other hang-outs with friends (including me. Yes, I know I'm very fortunate).

This week, I took him and another close friend of mine for a dinner to Bombay House. Knowing the importance of Indian cuisine to our taste buds, I felt that there could be nothing better than delicious chicken makhani and naan at this stressful point of the semester. Although this dinner had been due for a couple of weeks but I'm glad it happened this late, as this is the time of the semester when the weather, the school, this whole monotony seems to be getting the best of you.

Apart from this, another thing that added a lot more value to this weekend was the football session just this evening. Our ending play--the long pass--turned things around. He was the quarterback, one of the things he loves to do, and I was the wide-receiver. With our practiced coordination, Sameer's epic judgement and my up-to-par WR skills, we made a 72-yard play feel like magic. It was just something that you experience very rare in your life but you often look back to and can't help but say "wow, that was me, a part of something that incredible."

The importance of that catch was not in the play but how that split second completion became a game-changer for both of us. This accomplishment just opened the doors to a whole new world of possibilities. The next question just popped up like that; what else could we accomplish now?

I guess the symbolic significance of that completed play helped me recognize something, that actions do speak louder than words. With this, we continue on, recognizing and appreciating those things in life that broaden our horizons and make us conquer more.