Flashback - The Orientation

I still remember the day we got the results, that morning everyone was gung-ho about the results being put out but nothing was visible yet. It was around 4 in the evening, when a small popup came up on the lower right end of my screen saying "Mail from PGSEM". I was ready for anything, I was mentally preparing myself that I might not have gotten through, and that anyway I could try again next year if I wanted.

I opened the mail, and saw the "You've been selected...". I stopped right there. Sitting in office, a grin just came up on my face... and I couldnt stop it! I hadn't told anyone that I had been applying to the PGSEM, and now here I was with a piece of news I just wanted to yell out! (Yea, my manager knew since I was required to fill out a "company-acceptance" form, where the company says they have no objection to me studying while working. Everyone's into liability insurance and all nowadays, yeesh). So, when my neighbour at work realized that I was showing all my pearly whites, and that no one had sent us a funny forward since morning... he began to look worried. Then I told him, and he was like "Congratulations!!!", and I said "Thank you, thank you!" and then it just spread. Everyone got to know, and they were all like.. you're a techie, why the hell u doing a management course?! I told them all the same thing, I want to study further, I dont want to quit my job, this seemed like the best option for me.

Told my friends from college, and they all were like "Wow!" and "Huh?!" and "What-ay fool, it's a part time course!". Mainly the first one, though I got a few of the others too. Anyway, everyone thought it was a good decision, what with the recession and all that...

Orientation was scheduled for the 30-31st of May, and when I did reach there, I was back to "prim and proper". Took me all of 25 minutes to undo all that. Didn't act like a complete idiot, but sure was no complete elegance either. Spent some time mixing with a few of the folks, got to know a few names, met some of the guys from the time of the Open House, and we all enjoyed our flashback to feeling like students. I'd never stayed in a hostel before, now for three days that was what I'd be doing. The seniors did an awesome job of getting us to mix, and then giving us a feel of what it'd be like when we studied there. We had a case study, for which we were all awake till 2 AM that day... and then we had some ice breakers, a talk by Sanjay Anandaram, an entrepreneur-turned-VC. At the end of three days, we even had a sports competition!

When I left the place, I felt like I had known most of those guys for quite a while, those seniors really knew what they were doing. I didnt realize it just then, but that is one of the reasons it's so easy to talk to all my classmates now. There's just no more ice left... :)