When you grow up, what?

Coming from a family of high achievers, I have always been the black sheep in terms of not doing things by the book. I did not study towards a professional degree, was always vocal about opinions, watched too many movies for my good, have left behind the ideal age of getting married and work in night shifts!

This rebellious streak in me is probably a result of my upbringing – my parents are the most liberal amongst their generation in the Garani clan. While I never faced any educational pressure from my parents while growing up between 5yrs – 18 yrs, my mother did have a penchant for the BE and MBBS degrees of the world [All for a suitable groom and a happy ending ;)]. From whatever I could garner with very little observation, I could see that someone studying a Bachelors degree in Science put up with a lot of flak. This belittling cascaded into the class of lecturers available, career opportunities and even funding for a Fest!

Having gone through the, “Oh Only B.Sc.”, exclamations umpteen times during my 3 years of undergraduate studies, the new line when I started working was “Oh Call Center”. No point in explaining the difference between a Call Center and a Captive Financial Services BPO to people who will never remember it. But, is that how I feel towards my opted path? Definitely not! I have to say that I am at a considerably good place today professionally. Each day is about realizing and working towards bridging gaps. What more can one want when they get paid to do so?

The article that made me reminisce and want to write this post - http://blogs.hbr.org/hbr/nayar/2010/01/when-you-grow-up-what.html will hopefully set not only the parents but those involved in the system as well thinking.

Let the kids mould on their own, you only be the cornerstone to ensure that the shape is taking the right form!

PS – I have to say that I am guilty of asking a couple of kids prematurely “What do you want to do?” Another bad habit to curb :)