Friday, September 29, 2023

Second chances

 I am a firm believer in second chances. I had sat my engineering entrance exam after my year 12. I did not get the branch of my choice and decided to sit the exam again. This time as I was preparing, everything made much more sense to me. The organic chemistry lessons which seemed like voodoo the first time I was studying them became my favourite sections. I had always enjoyed physics and I enjoyed it a bit more this time around. It was all making so much more sense that I felt how dumb was I a few months ago to not be able to understand all this! 


I hated my first job. Everything was super hard, I didn't feel I was treated well. So much so I made up my mind that I was not designed for a career in IT. I still wish at times I had a different career, but my second job onwards I discovered the thrill of coding and loved it. I have been doing it for the past nearly 18 years and will keep doing it for another 18 I guess. 

My previous job was a radical shift in the way of working I was used and in the technology stack. I was working on some very cool and new stuff with quite modern ways of implementing. I felt quite daunted and suffered a lot from imposter syndrome. I was full of self doubt. But then my current job where I kind of do similar things, it is way easier for me. 

I don't know what happens with second chances? Are we armed with more information that we fail to see in our nervousness with the first attempt? Are we more relaxed because of our attitude that 'what's the worse that could happen ' and that lack of pressure makes us perform better. Are we more resilient after what we think was a failure the first time around. I am not sure what the reasons are, but second chances are really a deal breaker. They are our chance to get it right the second time around. Here's to second chances!

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