Journey Ends But Memories Last Forever

Nidhi Mann
Sep 6, 2018 · 7 min read
My family @TWU

I think every Graduate in ThoughtWorks is lucky to get an opportunity to be at TW University. I joined ThoughtWorks this year as a Grad and like other (ThoughtWorkers) TWers, I also got an opportunity to be in ThoughtWorks-University. But I think I’m luckier than others. Everytime TWU is in Pune, India. But this time it is also there in Xi’an, China. And I was one of the four Indians who got the chance to attend TWU in Xi’an.

It was my first time out of India, and so many things were there in my head. TWers told me that this will going to be your best time while other people are adding up on the stereotypes like “You’ll not going to like the food” and how will you survive: “You don’t know Chinese”. I was excited but at the same time nervous too. There were many things to be on nervous about. Our flight from India to Xi’an should ideally take 13 hours but for us, this traveling got finished in 30 hours. When I arrived in China, everything was so different and adding on to that, very few people know English (Chinese is the only medium to communicate and I don’t know a single word in Chinese at that time).

And then on my first day in TWU, Xi’an office, I met many people there. Few I already met at the hotel. Many are new to me, all from different countries, regions, and culture. I was really excited to work with all of them and make new friends but then when I started talking to them, reality hits me, we all speak different languages. Only a few have English as their first language. Whatever they wanted to say, I failed to understand and vice-versa. Now I was nervous because I wasn’t able to understand them so how can I work with them. But as the time passed, everyone improved in both expressing and understanding.

Even the virtual world is different there. They don’t have Zomato, Paytm, Uber, Amazon but have their own versions which are in Chinese. So, it’s hard to understand those applications and use them. Then the Chinese came as saviors and helped us to get through everything. Translator applications were our best friends there. And people who were not Chinese were celebrities there (It’s hard to find foreigners there), so everyone who saw us used to click pictures with us or try to click without letting us know. Food was amazing there (I’m kind of a person who loves to eat everything). So, I used to eat different food every day.

Then came the time when the project was introduced to us and my team. I was still not that comfortable to express my feelings with the team. So when tech stack was introduced, I got scared that how will I work on it, I don’t know a single technology used. And trust me everyone was feeling the same, but as I said both me and my team are not that comfortable to each other so I was thinking I’m the only one who doesn’t know anything and was stressed. And now I was recalling what TWers told me that this will going to be your best time but I was thinking how it can be my “best” time, I was failing to make that team as my family and I’m not going to miss the people here. But as the time passed, I was getting more comfortable with tech stack, trainers and my team (I forgot to tell the team name, it’s “BICYCOOL”).

I met amazing people there, both from my team and other teams, all with different skills and I learned so many things from them. That team was not just a team for me now, it’s more than that. They are now friends with me, they are now family to me. We all cried together when we’re unable to push code to production, when errors and bugs were not leaving us; We all get stressed together every time when build was red, when just before the showcase the site got crashed, when trainers increased the test coverage few hours(2 hours) before the showcase and build was red, when PO said this is not the quality I was expecting; we fight when we don’t know that what we are doing is right or wrong(Though we never had actual fights); We cherish the moments when first time and every time we push the code in production, when we showcased the features we promised, when we resolved those bugs which were not leaving us, when finally we implemented toggles, when finally we managed to arrange team outing without trainers; We were happy together when people said you have coolest team-cheer; We were proud together when showcasing the product to entire TWU, proud to be part of that team. We were crying, sad together when it was the last day at TWU and none of us want to leave each other but we have to.

I remember the retrospectives and meetings we organized to improve the team bonding and quality of work. And after one retrospective, everyone on the team was low, sad. And some magical thing happened (I still don’t what that thing was) and everyone got bonded too strongly. I remember we all use to share our worries when suspicious trainers use to go for meetings to discuss us. When in starting we use to hate when the only answer to our question was given as “ohh..It’s a nice question” following with a smile. I remember running to get food as we have check-ins at lunchtime. I remember the care and love of trainers towards us when my team was sad and how they try to cheer us. I remember going to bed late and managing to wake up early to catch the bus (sometimes I missed the bus and I only know the struggle to get a taxi and tell him the directions and also request to drive fast). Sometimes playing Uno till late night and partying almost every Friday, Singing Hindi and Brazilian songs in the bus when people were sleeping, and shouting in the hotel at midnight. Those memories are the treasure to me.

Before joining TW, I don’t know much technologies (rather I should say no technologies), but during university, I learned many. I got to know about spring, js, jsp, automated test, mybatis, etc. And also ways to learn if the tech-stack is new to you. I remember when I was stressed, one of my team-mate came to me and said that it’s okay if you don’t know anything, we also don’t know anything here. Let’s learn together. It’s just not about the technical skills, I learned many non-technical skills too. I improved my soft skills. I learned managing teams, respecting everyone’s opinions, considering everyone’s opinions, involving everyone in team, making decisions as a team, wearing different hats in the team, i.e., not just working as developer but also as BA, QA and sometimes person who motivate others to be happy and share if one is feeling sad. I learned to respect each other’s culture and religion. I learned to live in a single world and not in different countries. There were so many people from so many cultures and each culture have some good and some bad things, I learned to accept those bad things and cherish the good ones.

I learned different languages and songs in different languages, I teach Hindi and many Bollywood songs, talked about that every other day in India is a festival and learned about their festivals and diversity. I learned to be myself and enjoy those moments (when for the fact you know many of the features are not completed and quality is low, many don’t have the test, and you have got a lot pending stuff to do). I learned that office is not just about working on features or products and leave but it’s more here in TW, it’s about enjoying the office and doing many things of your interest and talking about each other’s interest, motivating others and get inspired from others, looking towards the society and contribute what you can, being aware of everything around you and being YOU.

Each and every person there was unique in some sense. All were amazing. It’s difficult to adjust in beginning and it’s even harder to leave those people when everyone is moving to their home offices. I remember how much we cried while watching experience videos and even more when leaving the hotel.

In China, WhatsApp is not popular, WeChat is popular. So all Chinese people installed WhatsApp to be in touch and now we are connected on every possible platform, social media have. TWU was an amazing experience for me: the unforgettable experience and best moment till now, it was not just an amazing, it’s even more (I don’t have words to express how good it was for me). Thanks, TW for giving such an opportunity to me. I’m able to see the improvement in me. What I was in beginning, now completely different person when left TWU with lots of improvements and new learnings. I again want to go to those people and want to relive the TWU 62 (Though I know it’s not possible). I’m missing each and everyone and looking forward to work with them in the future if given any chance.

My team used to do team-cheer after everything, so how can I miss that here:

“Bicycool….ahhh….Ice-cold”

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