The Unsaid Dreams . Truth . Desires

1

'That's it! Today is the day', thought Alina, switching off her alarm. She barely slept last night, out of anxiety, enthusiasm, nervousness, a combination of all possible emotions. Today, she was supposed to board the flight to the United States. This has been one of her dreams, forever. Had her dream been going to the States for vacation, she could have ticked it off long back, but she wanted to stay there for a couple of years, so going there on a job consignment made much more sense. It was typical of her, she liked to plan through things. Why 2 years? Because she wanted to learn their culture, know what differentiates an American from an Indian, what makes America a developed country at a fundamental level and all these could be achieved only when you live and think like the locals. 

Alina was a dreamer, but what differentiates her from the rest was she possessed the capabilities to fulfill her dreams or at least was able to do so till now. Was it her capabilities, her hard work, or just her dream which helped her succeed, she could never really think of an answer. She had a constant fire within her, she never seemed to be content with what she had achieved, it was like she needed a goal to pursue, at any given time, and when the set target was achieved, she would start feeling restless again. This kept her moving. But there has been something which was a constant, she wanted to do something so that people recognize her, that she could set an example for millions of people like her out there. It looked like all her other goals were steps to achieve this bigger picture. Going to the US was yet again, one of her milestones which she achieved after landing a job with an MNC post her MBA. After working extremely hard on multiple assignments, she secured a position in a project which required her to work from the client location. Her expertise was working in strategic groups and she had worked in multiple industries previously. She had eyes upon the media and entertainment sector for quite some time now, and this client was a leading player headquartered in California. So when Alina was offered the role, it was hitting an inner bullseye.

Lying on her bed, she thought of the time when she was supposed to fly to the US 2 years back. She was through the beginning of the second year of her MBA program in India and she was supposed to attend a month-long international immersion program in Pittsburgh. Everything was on track, all her batchmates filled the DS-160 form, went to the US Consulate in Mumbai, and were granted B1/B2 visa. Their stay location was also finalized and her friends had already worked upon the list of places they would be visiting during their stay.

But as taught in most basic business management lectures, every action is governed by both exogenous and endogenous factors. Endogenous, the internal, was sorted, and then came the exogenous one, Covid 19, literally putting a ban on almost everything. The year which was supposed to be the year of travel, the most important year of her life yet, where she could thought she could get a sliver of her dream along with a lifetime of memories and an insanely high-paying job was spent in lockdown, in her hometown, Jamshedpur, India. Not only the MBA batch of 2021 attended an entire year of online lectures,  but their hiring interviews were also conducted virtually. This somehow made her less content, she wanted more of an experience out of the course and the stupid pandemic deprived her of that.

'Sweetie, are you still on the bed?' told Alina's mother while entering the room. She lovingly placed her palm on Alina's cheek.

'Just about to....getting up', she said while smiling at her mom and sat up straight on the bed. 

'I will be leaving today mum', she mumbled quickly as she left her bed.