Letter to Sangita after EMBA

Hi Sangita,

This moment of graduation deserves something special and more than ‘THANK YOU’ so thought of writing this reflection letter to you. I am sure given that you know me so much now you must not be surprised receiving this. It was hard for me to complete this without tears in eyes.

You are amongst the very few who knew what was happening around me during this entire process of me talking through the possibility of enrolling into EMBA program, selecting the good institute which will provide the best education at the cost that I can afford through education loan, recommendation letters, writing essays about my educational & career background and so on. I was fortunate enough to get accepted into Notre Dame after rigorous interview and admission committee selection process. I remember confirming with you before accepting the enrollment offer and you advising me to ‘take the leap of faith’. As always I involve Rahul, Sana and Swara into any decision-making process (me coming on GCP opportunity was one of those), I discussed with them that accepting this offer will be a huge time commitment as it will demand 3 weeks stay away from home, regular college time and study time. Given the program structure, my first 2 priorities will be ‘work‘ and ‘studies’ and third priority will be ‘family’. They were good with this decision and were very encouraging throughout.

When I was about to go for my first progression immersion at south bend, in January 2016, you told me that due to budget cut I may or may not have role in USA. It was shocking and sad to hear such news when you have just heard that your loan is disbursed and you have officially not even started going to college. When there was nothing in my hand to take any action on this announcement I decided to play it by ear. When I attended the first progression and came back from South Bend I felt that I never missed the studies or there was any gap in my education. I enjoyed the learning process with my fellow students as all of us had varied level of experience and diverse set of capabilities. Throughout this process, given the professional experience I had, approach of going to the root of the concept than just focusing on the problem on hand, tackling the multiple deadlines of submissions and asking relevant questions helped me gain the confidence I was looking for and I felt that I belong here. When I started this education, I heard from many that it was the exceptional decision and commitment on my behalf given my background. But I always let that conversation go in the air as I did not want this feeling to supersede my efforts and make me lose my focus.

This journey was not simple as Rahul had to go to North Carolina during June/July time frame and then I had to take girls with me for my second progression stay. I had to arrange the nanny for them during the residency, attend the classes and take care of them after class hours and concentrate on the assignments. As if this was not enough, Rahul had to go through the EAD card renewal process twice due to EAD card expiry and then due to my visa extension EAD card need to be renewed to match the dates. Both the times we experienced RFE, delays and extreme non-cooperative attitude from Rahul’s company. So much so that Rahul had to resign. This time was so emotional for all of us as we had taken a decision to take GCP opportunity, Rahul decided to help me, came in USA and now he had to put his career on stake. Political situation around us was also not promising. Again, given that we can only hope for the best we decided to concentrate on studies/work and Rahul also concentrated on his studies and completed Scrum Certification, AWS Solution Architect certification and started training and freelancing work. We hit by another turbulence; Sana was detected with the early puberty In January 2017 and she had to go through lot of pains during the period and medical tests to rule out any odds. Simplifying things for her and making her believe that this is natural but little early for her when her class friends have no sign of it was a task by itself.
Now at the time of graduation, looking back I feel that despite all the odds I thoroughly enjoyed the learning process, four of us have developed strong bonding than ever and gained tremendous confidence that if we are together we can struggle against any situation. When Rahul and daughters visited last day at school I was being introduced by my classmates as ‘the modest and smart girl’. And I know that the credit goes to you as It was a journey started with you offering me a GCP opportunity and helped me rediscover my strengths coming out of my comfort zone.

All this could not have been possible without your strong support, encouragement and trust on me. Saying Thank you is not enough here as I know you also might have gone through scrutiny of supporting me so far. Talking to you during this journey, sometimes revealing the pain and gaining subtle insights has been extremely helpful without which I could not have survived. Now I realize much better when you used to emphasize that relationship is important in the professional set up as well. Rahul mentioned to me that I am fortunate enough to get a mentor like you who is not only a good professional but also a good human being and I echo the same.

Thanks for everything once again,

Kavita