“Some days I’m extremely focused on my career development & future goals . Other days I just want to quit & become a housewife & bake shit.” Read this somewhere and that’s exactly what goes on in my head all the time.
I got married last year to the love of my life and since then my life has turned upside down. But all for good. I recently got into my dream school for a one year MBA and I am extremely excited at the thought of studying at one of the most reputed global universities to pursue my goals.
I have been following Sheryl Sandberg for a few years now. While all her comments on women in business are powerful, my favourite has been: “I truly believe that the single most important career decision that a woman makes is whether she will have a life partner and who that partner is.”
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My husband is the biggest reason I stand where I am today and I wholeheartedly believe that marrying him was the most important career decision I ever made. I still remember the moment when I entered my interview location for my B-school interview, gasping inside, and there I met a cohort of similar aspiring MBA women. All of the unmarried girls stood amazed at how I was managing this ugly cycle of GMAT, applications and interviews despite being married alongside, having a full-time challenging job, and a part-time freelancing profession .
There have been times when I have done nothing except sit at my study table during my GMAT preparations, and my husband came back from office after a 14-hour day and made dinner for us, did the dishes and then sat with me discussing my progress on my tests. And yet another countless times during writing my essays – when I slept and he stood awake improving them. He researched more than me about all the schools I was applying to and I never felt the need to hire a professional consultant, since he reviewed my essays a million times before I finalized them .
He was the one who explained to both our families how much our lives would change if I convert my dream of going to school reality whenever they had questions about why we were doing what we were doing. And more than anything else, at times when I had doubts about my own abilities, he was the one who said: “You have always made me proud and you always will. Come on. Let’s do it!”
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The stress of applying to a top business school is like participating in a marathon. You have to set goals, develop a plan, and train. He made me less fearful in this journey. I faced rejections and almost gave up at times. I had faced defeat earlier in my life, but these were breaking me down to the core and I was on the verge of deciding to quit altogether. But he was the one who kept me going.
I shall be starting my business school this fall . Guess who is celebrating more than me? It’s my husband. For all those women who think that marriage and career can’t go hand in hand – you should think again. If someday I make it big in my life, my husband shall be the biggest reason for it.
Images: Shutterstock
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