Another adventurous academic year comes to an end - our Dubai Chapter.

"It seems like yesterday when we walked in through those doors and wondered where we were; and now time has gone by so fast that we haven’t realised it." I'm sure you all have heard this clichéd line in almost every end of the year speech you've ever heard (yes, Suyash, Pandey and I even said it last year in Singapore).

In all honesty, we kind of had an idea of what we were stepping into. We have seniors, duh, for those who don't know about it yet. But the difference was, we were very eager to experience it. We heard it was challenging and pushes the limits and that it was tough, which was a basic starter pack for scaring away potential students.

As we experienced Dubai life, we have a lot of memories and lessons. Sure, the experience of living in a building that is not the building we study in was different and waking up and showering before coming to class was a painful task; but it was something that taught us a lot. Personally, it made me realise that the concept of responsibility extended beyond the realm of academics and personal hygiene to managing housing for people, taking care of rental issues and all that stuff that adults do.

Then it hit, second year is over. I'm going to let that sink in.

For some of us, it's only one more year till we're classified as adults, for some, two more. It's an opportunity, not something to freak out about. After all, we've been waiting for it all our lives. Birthday after birthday, just saying "I can't wait to grow up."

Yes, Dubai helped us see all the regular stuff that college is supposed to make us see, like friendships, honor, truthfulness, academics and the concept of learning. But the one thing that I personally think all of us are going to take away from Dubai is that life is a game, and the "free trial version" is almost over. Now we "pay as we play".

Good luck everyone. See you soon, hopefully. If I won't, then I'll probably miss you. If I will, I hope we all can start off at better places from where we leave now. May the best player keep playing.

~ by Ujjwal Bansal (2^nd year BBA 2015)