Thoughts: Hannah's Blog

It’s been a year since I joined at my current workplace! Time has gone by so fast. I survived – that’s the highlight. They say the first year is always the toughest. Ya, I had my fair share of challenges, I knew what was coming my way but man, I was not prepared. When I first joined, Psalm 18 was my promise. I knew this was my training ground, but I always took comfort in the fact that God is with me, He brought me here and He will see me through. The lesson I had to learn was to Trust, to rely on Him for everything.

It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure.

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights.

He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

You make your saving help my shield, and your right hand sustains me; your help has made me great.

You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way. Psalms 18:32-36.

Initially it was all Greek and Latin to me. I had to learn a lot. Everything was new.  Thankful to God for all the people who taught me stuff, for the trainings I could take up, for all the flexibility I could use, for the cab service, for the various food options available (trust me, I gained weight!), for the hot cups of coffee and tasty ginger tea. I am kind of getting used to things and the way things happen but there are times of pressure too – deadline pressure, not able to understand few things still, not getting the bigger picture, messing things up, spending time and effort on clearing the mess – it’s all there. Difficulty in relating to people around me, in making friends, in understanding the code, the process of un learning and then learning… the list goes on.

Things I miss…

My lunch gang of girls, I used to look forward to all the conversations, long walks around the beautiful campus, sharing personal stories, funny moments and what not. I miss the fun we used to have at our desks – whenever our team met, we used to generate lot of noise – mostly laughter, pulling each other’s legs, deciding when/where to go out for lunch. Planning celebrations, fun events: secret Santa especially – buying gifts, sharing them. The bond that we shared, is something really special and I will always hold it dear to my heart. Thankful to God for all the people he has placed in my life, I’ve been blessed by them.

Relationships do take time and effort to be built up.

Moving on to the things I don’t miss…

– The evening calls! It used to eat up so much of my time. The status calls (Still have some of those but in the mornings though), the time spent on documentation/project management related work is all gone now. I do more of technical stuff and coding.

– The All hands meetings! I never was able to relate to any of the talks that used to happen there.

– Working in Silos! I’ve always loved to work as a team, but in my previous project – I used to work with people from different locations, not even one person in same office. I missed having face to face discussions, having someone to look over my code to find issues or help me with solving those.

After all this, I realise that there is no perfect place. There is a give and take, in every place. It was good of God to push me out of the comfort zone, to help me learn to rely on Him. He is working in and through me. Now that I am put in tough situations, I realise how weak my faith is. It’s a journey, and I am glad God is with me to walk along side, holding my hand and promising me that we will get through this together. He brought me here with a purpose and He will keep me here till that purpose is fulfilled. Thankful to God for all the ways He has lead me through and for being my very present help in my times of need.

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. -Psalm 20:7