Thank you Vidhya for sharing this beautiful story. I also felt I had a mid-life crisis but, as you very well described, it was just a moment to re-think our purpose in life. I felt very touched and identified with your story.

Few years ago, I was going through a similar phase where I questioned myself which way I should go: stay at Cisco or move to Environmental companies to fulfill my passion and background in Nature Conservation? But then, a new CSR project in Amsterdam office kicked off (Amsterdam Cisco Connected Bees) with the aim to help understanding Bees decline using technology. And there, I saw the light: the two paths were crossing.
From that moment on, my volunteering hours and efforts would go around awareness sessions, Tech-Hackathons, employee activities with Dutch community/NGOs. Also, the project leader at that time (Matthieu Minguet) was key to remind us that with Cisco, we don’t need to choose between two paths, and that we can combine our work and our passion to give back to this World.
This project and his leadership kept me inspired, motivated, proud to be part of that project, and proud to belong to this company that makes it all possible.