Palak Pitale #TeacherPride

As a young girl I always wanted to be a Lawyer and I became one. After working for 4 years in a Law firm I was exhausted. Just then I married the man of my dreams and moved to the United States. This change was scary and exciting at the same time. Giving up your career not knowing what the future holds for you was something I never really thought at that point in life. All I wanted was a break from the monotonous life that I was living as a Litigation lawyer. Sometimes you need to step outside, get some air and remind yourself of who you are and who you want to be. Living in the U.S.A gave me a lot of free time to think, learn, grow and understand myself better. I realized that I wasn’t unhappy in my job as a lawyer but I was unhappy with the work-life balance. I always enjoyed the academic side of law and I had this itch to teach be it law or anything else for that matter. To my visits to India every year I was teaching various law subjects to students and while I was in the U.S I was teaching art (which is my hobby) to a lot of preschool and kindergarten children. Two totally different subjects but the only thing common was – “Teaching”. I enjoyed Teaching! After spending 5 years in the U.S. teaching young children along with my own daughter I was sure about what I wanted to do when I was back to the Bay. I wanted to teach! So I enrolled myself for a Teacher Training Program for which I got a Gold Medal. Today I am a Training Manager. Law was my profession but not my passion. I have realized that my impact as a Teacher is clear but my impact as a Lawyer is ambiguous. Don’t worry that life is passing you by-it won’t. It’s never too late. Try a bit of this and that and see what works! It’s all about believing that your goals are possible.

-Palak Pitale- Training Manager at IECED (Institute of Early Childhood Education & Development)