Moving from college to work is a huge transition in life. Especially when you come to a new city, everything is a new experience.
Everyone would have made friends in college, but you’ll start learning to use a new term, colleague, which fundamentally means the same - people who you hang out with during work, and gradually start to hang out with post work. This friendship is different from the unconditional friendship you make in school or college. You tend to be reserved and have a professional relationship, and always be wary of the tendency to be judged.
“I’m at a meeting” or “Held up at work, will ping you later” would sound like a legitimate excuse for replying to someone who you wouldn’t want to talk to.
The first day of every month would be the happiest day of the month (read salary day). There would be times when you blow a lot of it in the first week and rue for it for the rest of the month. At times like these, you’ll realise adults aren’t miserly by choice but by dire necessity. On the other hand, you’ll have spending power. Love those Adidas shoes or a Tommy Hilfiger watch? A swipe of your card and it is yours. It’ll seem like you are your own boss, but that’s only till you meet your reporting manager in the office the following day. There’s always a higher up who’ll extract the most out of you, unless you’re an entrepreneur already of course.
You’ll slowly realise that you can construct your lifestyle from scratch. It starts with finding your new house, and flat mate(s) to share it with, setting up the décor and making it your own. Finding the right flatmate is likely to be an issue. Common interests go a long way in finding the right person. I know this sounds like marriage but trust me, it is important. If you have a benevolent landlord, the frequency of those odd house parties you used to have will increase manifold.
Everyone believes there’s a great cook in them. Expect Masterchef-level talks even when their risotto is a horribly failed pongal. Also, you know you can’t waste food when you’ve put a lot of effort into making it and hence this results in a filled stomach every time. The flipside here is, doing the dishes. Things you always took for granted in your life till date will stare back at you. There’s no way out. Do the dishes or suffer on the morrow.
Talking about those days would become a thing. “Back in my youth, when I was a kid in school I did this and I was like that”. As if we’re all grandads and grandmas already. But you’ll enjoy advising the ‘young ones’.
Responsibility is a virtue that gets tagged when you become an adult. Because, when you take a wrong step and fall into the figurative deep end of the pool, there’s no parent, teacher or a grownup there to lift you up. Because a grown up is what you’ve become now.
Aahir Giri (the one on the right, taking the selfie), out with his "colleagues", shopping:
