The missing part

You first mentally prepare yourself saying.....well, saying whatever it is that you say to yourself to mentally prepare yourself. I, for example, kept saying that it would be a bad scene at home if I failed and at least for that reason I shouldn't. This usually went on for a day. Two days at the most if I thought I had that much time to waste!! After that it really hit me that, for me actually not to fail, I had to fulfill at least the minimum requirement and start preparing. In right earnest. One of my friends told me some time back that I was very good at preparing a plan of action for things to be done! Don't know how true the part about me being good at it is. Neither do I know why or where he got that idea from. But yes, I do draw up some sort of a plan always (whether or not I follow it is a whole different issue though!). Anyway, the plan, roughly would be about what to do, how to do it and when to complete. Once this was done, I stopped because, for some unknown reason, I felt I had done enough by just having the plan!! However, I didn't take long to get out of that disillusionment. So there I was with my study material, being diligent and all, trying to cram in as much as possible. I sometimes didn’t mind burning the midnight oil as well (this was usually for cases where I had already blown 90% of my prep time not prep'ing!!!) And most of the times, somehow, I managed to finish going through all my material in time (This in no way meant that I was prepared properly. Only that I was at least familiar with all that I had to be more than familiar with). And then it was show time. Into the exam hall I went, praying to all those forgotten gods, goddesses and whoever else I thought might have enough power to help me out. And it had more or less always worked in my favor. I didn't enjoy any of the times I had to take an exam but I have also never failed to pass any of my major exams (touch wood!). So all that being my history with exams, I was more than relieved, to finally (and supposedly) finish my education and get a job. For me it represented the end of taking exams and end of the torturous preparation process. And more importantly, it represented my favorite picture - that which showed me raking in the moolah. Didn't realize at the time that a very important part was missing from that picture. The part which showed what I had to do to rake it all in!!

Today, a few years after I started "raking in the moolah", as I sit in front of my comp on a weekend, all my material spread out on and around it, making notes, practicing for that presentation that I have to give first thing next week, I realize what the missing part of the picture was!