I was always my daddy’s little girl. My father wanted his girl to be self-dependent.
My first goal of life was to make him feel proud and that encouraged me to focus on my academic front. I hold a double post-graduation:
- Master in Commerce
- Master in Computer Applications
Computer Applications in those days were new, like a really new thing. The internet was an expensive thing to access and as it sounds such a common thing that even kids can use, it wasn’t that easy back then.
After education, it was time to move into the earning world.
I got my first job to teach in the same school where I was a student. Then life moved on to the next basic social steps, getting married (my loving husband is a Lawyer), plan a family (we are blessed with two amazing sons).
I am from that part of the world where we can see all colors of life, India. Finding a loving package of husband and in-laws is a dream come true. Everything went smoothly and I resumed my teaching career again after settling down a little bit.
I enjoyed sharing my knowledge base with students as I always had in my mind that teaching is my only future career with a peaceful and stable career.
Year after year, I found something missing.
I noticed some basic flaws in the system which were not helping me in achieving my goal. I had to pass an interview every year to confirm my placement in the college. Destiny had one attempt for me that I could not clear the interview round. I could not figure out what I missed even after giving more than 100 percent to my job.
Because I was so comfortable in the same teaching career, I could not think of anything else except for trying out for the job in the same field. So I found one and moved on to find work satisfaction. Now, I noticed that something is missing. I was not able to find mutual respect among the team. There was a weird hierarchy where I had to just follow the instructions, I could not find creativity in the work and also could not find a way to convey the same because of the weird hierarchy.
But God has something hidden for you and you never know when it clicks. The best thing is, you identify that signal. I am glad that I identified it. Due to Covid19, the government imposed a countrywide lockdown. Our school operations were transitioned to the remote. With the help of the powerful internet, the school organized live classes from home. Teachers were supposed to send their study material to the students online.
At this time, when every work is being done remotely, I got a chance to sit and relax and think about other good things to add to my daily list.
One of them was content writing.
I am using technology in one way or the other for the last 15 years. One fine day, on a casual tea get-together, my friend who is already working at Upstack and could not stop saying good words about the community, uttered a few words: “If you like blog reading, you would love even more if you write the content yourself”.
That was my Eureka moment!
Then I just felt that all the positive vibes of the world are with me and they are forcing me into this direction of absolutely a new career. At the age of 40, switching to an absolutely new career was ridiculous. I still remember that sleepless couple of nights because of excitement. Things started happening one after another, Interview part 1, Interview part 2 and guess what… I got that “Congratulations” email! Yeah, I was the part for the team Upstack!
Though I entered the new world of remote work, the positive attitude, guidance of my teammates, and friendly environment made my learning curve easier. The way we work here motivates me to learn new things with great enthusiasm. Hierarchy exists here, but it is not visible, because every work is teamwork here.
The new path of researching, understanding keywords, creative approach to writing something useful to share with the world, and here I am… Creating the content for Upstack, an amazing remote community that celebrates remote work, and mutual respect. This journey of learning and finally moving out of the comfort zone to achieve what I wish for has given that satisfaction that I was looking for.
I wish for more power to all the women in the world to identify that signal and go for it by keeping fears away. If you believe in yourself, no one can stop you!
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Author: Sheetal Munjal
