A Nervous High Schooler Again...

The other day I did something that I always wanted to do.  I had the opportunity to speak with 500 Indian High School students about careers in sports marketing. A friend of mine is a counselor at Delhi Public School Sushant Lok and she asked me to speak at their Career Fair.   

The things we get nervous about are funny. I can walk in front of 3,000 adults and deliver a speech without a single butterfly in my stomach, but put me in front of a bunch of high school students and all of my childhood anxieties begin to surface. Will they like me? Will they laugh at my accent? Will they even pay attention to what I'm saying?

I prepared for the presentation for 2 days straight. I even delivered it in front of one of my colleagues to get his feedback. On the day of the career fair I showed up and was immediately ushered into the auditorium. It was filled to the brim with bored students, stale heat and fans that were making way too much noise.  When they welcomed me up on stage, I stopped and reminded myself to forget about looking good. I reconnected with the Neel who always wanted to have the opportunity to open Indian students' eyes to the extraordinary world of working in a field they are passionate about (instead of one their parents are passionate about). I always wanted a platform to stress the importance of attitude vs. academic results. 

Inside of that, I channeled all of my confidence and energy and delivered what I have been told was a great presentation. By the way, it never hurts to start out a presentation in India by showing a clip of India winning the Cricket World Cup:)

The moral of this post is that India is changing. After the presentation I spent 30 minutes with the school Principal discussing how so many more Indian parents are supportive of their children pursuing fields of their passion.  Coincidentally, her own son is pursuing a Sports Management Masters in Scotland right now and will be looking for a job in sports in India once he graduates. It's a different and more liberal India than ever before and I love being a part of this evolution.


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