As I sit in a fancy airport lounge ready to take yet another flight to the country I called my motherland, I am hit with an unfamiliar feeling.. I usually am very good at giving names to how I feel.. I feel excited to meet my team back home, I am filled with love at the thought of meeting my family and I am going to miss SFO which I am leaving behind for some time while I tend to the other half of personal and professional life in India.

What I feel can almost be described as a cross between gratitude, humility, pride and thankfulness..I feel so grateful to be awarded this opportunity as being a woman of colour born and married into a middle class family and with only a tiny bit better education but nothing that would warrant me the life I live today and the opportunities I get today.

I think I might do the indescribable thing to a feminist.. I am going to thank a few people for where I am today..first of all, it’s going to be my parents and family on both sides who raised and tolerated me focusing on my ambitions over a traditional and by the book lifestyle.. I’m also going to have to call out the crazy half I called my husband who finds great joy in making fun of me and my madness but I know is secretly super proud of me for pushing the boundaries. I can’t not thank the tremendous mentors and leaders who have pushed me to challenge myself and be the best version of myself. In my job I come across tough crossroads everyday and it is only the trust of these leaders that allows me to confidently steer my team and the organisation I lead. I also am blessed with some amazing peers and team members who over the course of years have become family and will always call me out if I am out if my depth!

As I chomp on my not so fancy lounge food, my heart feels giddy with excitement for not what I leave behind but what lies ahead and then hopefully this dream will last a lifetime so I can feel this again and again!

Till later!