When I chose Love over my Career: My Story

I joined AmEx Gurgaon in 2015 in PoS Fraud Strategy as a Business Analyst. I was having a rough time at AmEx as I really wanted to pursue my passion of Mathematics in the US. I had secured an admit at Univeristy of Illinois - Urbana Champaign and UT-Austin in their MS programme and was totally checked out at work.

During my tenure at AmEx, I was mostly bored. Looking at internal tools and spreadsheets was the worst. This coupled with the fact that I was travelling to and fro between Noida and Gurgaon meant that I was commuting a solid 4 hours everyday.

In this time of mental agony, I met this charismatic young woman, she was an Analyst in the Credit Underwriting Team. I don't know what got into me and I asked her out to coffee. We went to the Starbucks in CyberHub the next morning and she was the most delightful personality ever. Sweet and elegant, she talked of her passion with vigour, from her ideals to writing poems. I left that conversation feeling uneasy though.

She reminded me of what I wanted but also of what I was scared to lose in her.

We continued to date for the next 6 months in a hush-hush manner to avoid any suspicion at AmEx. I had to start the process of getting my F1-visa for the US and when I told her about it she was extremely disheartened.

In my heart, I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my days with her and life without her was nothing but an empty void. She came with me to the US Consulate Office, and I don't know what got into me but I kissed her.

I knew that I wanted her more than anything else.

Decided not to give the Visa Interview and applied to ISB with my GRE score. Got into it and ended up becoming a Management Consultant in MBB.

We got married in 2019 and welcomed our daughter into this world in 2021.

I wonder what life would've been living in the US. But whatever it would be, it couldn't be better than being in her arms when we come back from work.

Have faith. Everything will turn out to be okay. Trust the process