The train of my life
#10 _A credit manager of motor company asked again and again, had she understood true, did my friend apply for a credit. According to documents her year salary was twice more than the price of car. If it was so, than why did she need that credit. It was comic situation for my friend, we were laughing, listening this short stand-up.
We all, four ladies at the table, were class mates since university times. We had been graduated in the best Russian university, we spent 6 years studying, like doctors. It was special type of education: education was paid by state budget, and the university didn’t accept results of school exams. So we had to pass enter examination due to university program. Besides all students must be Moscovites, and we had to work in day time at government offices. Lectures were in evening time, till 10-10:30 pm.
The hardest thing was to pass those exams. In the first year I failed, but in second time I was lucky to pass. Actually most of our students attended university 2., or 3., or even 4 years. We all were from similar families: children of engineers, doctors, teachers. Around the world these occupations are respected and well-paid, it was so in Soviet period, but in 90-s, because of new economical changes, our parents had lost everything: money they have been saving all the life, well-paid work, social status. They became like poor rats, crowling over the piles of books in home libraries. When I look at photos of our first university year, I am smiling and crying, we were so happy but our clothes were so poor. The only thing our parents could give us was helping to get best education. And they did. I remember, sometimes we couldn’t buy enough food for our family, but we always had money to pay for private lessons for me. Can I ever pay this debt to my parents back?
So we were very smart, hungry and ambitious students! We wanted to take revenge for our families, for our parents. We were going to get that self-respect back, to show the world, if you use your brain, hard-working and disciplined, you ll get what you want. We wanted to be cool and rich like lawyers in American movies. We watched all best movies about American law system – “The Firm”, “The Devil’s advocate” etc, and it always inspired us, to be more professional, more hard-working.
It was so hard: in day time we worked generally on position of law assistant in law firms or in government offices. During our lunch breaks, or expecting court settles we tried to do homeworks, and in the evening we must be on lectures, seminars…Almost for 6 years it was so.
5-7 years later, after graduating, we all made our career dreams come true. We could buy good cars – Volvo, Lexus, Mercedes, or quality suits, bags, shoes in Italy or in London, or in France, it was necessary part of life style. Few guys even founded their own consulting firms. Good, comfortable and stable life. Our parents could be really proud of us.
So the trains of our lives kept on going, following the route as sheduled, just we had to shovel coal into the engine in time, controlling the speed…
Why did I decide to stop my train and get it off? Now I m in this dirty, broken vehicle, driving by horse…
-- Hey, wake up, are you sleeping? We arrived in Paharganj.
“Thank you for the trip, my dear Horse. It was unforgettable!”
(to be continued)