I Missed My Graduation Exam, and Thought My Dream Was Over

Okay, I want to tell you my story. Just be patient. I will tell you how it all started.

Just take your memory a few years back. I was a jovial and bubbly boy at that time, around 20 years of age. I had just completed my 10+2 in commerce with a first division, though I was never interested in bookkeeping or accounting.

Due to poverty, I badly needed a job at that time. I lived in a very small city. I didn’t have a graduate degree or any other professional qualification to boast of.

As soon as my result was out, I was under immense pressure to join a job either in sales or in accounting. I knew my hobbies, my attitude and my skills always resonated with writing or something related to creativity. But I knew if I continued to search for a job in this field, I might remain unemployed forever. Neither my town would understand what I wanted to be, nor was there any magic wand in my hand.

So, frustrated, I decided to join a sales job. However, I resolved to complete graduation in any manner whatsoever so that I could also get my dream job. Meanwhile, I nonchalantly joined a sales job. But alongside, I also enrolled for B.Com First Year at a local regular college.

A Job I Never Wanted

Days passed, but my profile as a salesman didn’t give me any happiness. I just carried on. Days turned to weeks, and weeks to months. I kept working. I listened to what the shop owners asked me to do.

It was an IT products showroom. So, I had to sell printers, laptops, mobiles, routers, sound boxes and other gadgets.

While seeing newer gadgets and costly phones in front of my eyes made me happy and curious to know more about them, I was more interested in learning newer terminologies and technical jargon.

Also, whenever customers were not in the shop, I spent time reading various gadget-related magazines, brochures and pamphlets and just dreamt that someday I, too, would be writing about these gadgets and equipment.

Days passed. Whoever I met in the shop, whether girls, boys or senior people, told me to leave the job, keep studying and complete my graduation. But I was adamant. If I left the job, we’d starve.

But Something Was Missing

So, I just made sure to accept positive opinions and reject the rest.

Meanwhile, as my experience in selling printers grew stronger, people in the shop, both girls, boys and senior people, loved interacting with me. They were impressed by my convincing skills. They often wrote in the sales diary about how convincing I was and how they happily bought the product because of my skills.

I was also happy, but somewhere the mojo was missing. I never imagined myself selling stuff or managing dealers 10 or 15 years later, like my seniors or area sales manager used to do.

I wanted to jump to a bigger company, but here again, I neither had the knowledge of bike riding nor could I join the firm simply as a 10+2-passed candidate.

The only thing consistent and constant was the monthly salary, which greatly helped me pay my rent, manage groceries and conveyance for the to-and-fro journey to the shop.

Rest all went as usual while I was slowly becoming disenchanted with the world of selling and life inside shopping malls or retail shops.

And then the day came when ENOUGH was ENOUGH.

I, with all my might, decided to say, “It’s all over.” I know it was not the mistake of the shop. They tried everything to keep my interest in working as a sales guy, but I was saying to myself, “It’s done, bro. You should try something that aligns with your interest, not selling stuff just to pay rent.”

The Day Everything Changed

As I was crossing towards my college, I just thought I would attend a class and might reach the shop half an hour late.

But that was the turning point.

As I went inside my college, there was a pin-drop silence. My class was empty. Then suddenly, I ran down to the faculty department and asked my auditing teacher what was the matter and why the class was empty.

My auditing professor replied, “You don’t know? The last extended date for exam form submission, with double fine, is over. And all students have successfully submitted their exam forms just a day back. So, we are now in the process of shortlisting those forms and will send them to the university head office for final approval so that these students can take their exams in the upcoming Graduation Part 1 Exam.”

It was an earth-shattering piece of news to me.

The exam was still three months away. Obviously, my next question was, “Sir, I missed it. Can I submit my exam form now?”

My professor told me to visit the head clerk and see what he said.

A Dream Shattered

After listening to my request, my head clerk said, “Bua (kid), these dates are determined by the government and approved authorities. We can’t do anything about it. It was even the extended last date, but it’s already over. So, we can’t do anything. Moreover, all submitted exam forms will be scrutinised and finalised this week only, you already missed the deadline. But you can try next year because, for this year, the dates will not be extended. That’s why we always remind our students to keep visiting colleges at least once a week to stay up to date about all-round activities.”

He then asked me when I had visited my college last time. I answered, “I am already in a job, and I visited my college once at the time of admission only.”

After a deafening silence, the clerk said, “That’s the reason. You are admitted as a regular student, but you haven’t visited college since admission. Now, besides the exam fees, you are even failing your 75% attendance criteria. You are not even close to 50%. So, we can’t help. And even the university vice chancellor can’t help you. But don’t lose hope. Continue your job and try next year.”

No Turning Point?

I was stunned. Knowing that any attempt to fill out the exam form wouldn’t work because the extended last date was over, I simply moved on, took a rickshaw and went towards my shop, but of course, not without a sea of tears flowing down my eyes.

I knew that this shop and working as a salesman was now my destiny. I couldn’t even complete my Graduation Part 1 exam, forget the three-year graduation course.

I had missed the exam deadline, and somewhere I felt I had missed my life’s turning point as well, the chance to break the shackles of poverty and get away from selling stuff that I didn’t like.

(By Atish Home Chowdhury)