Indi Sunner, 24, London-based, works for an entertainment company in the team of mergers, acquisitions and strategy.
Did I think I would be where I am now? 120% No. I actually majored in organic chemistry because that was always what I felt really passionate about when I was growing up. I did an internship during uni within the field of organic chemistry. It was really cool and I was working with some really, really cool people, really smart people. I learned a lot, but probably the most important thing that I took away from that was everything that I had kind of thought my career will end up being, which at that point was doing a doctorate a PhD after finishing my Masters, was not what I wanted to do.
It was from doing that internship that I realised that I really like the theory behind what I was doing and understanding why things were happening on a scientific basis, but when it came to actually doing the practical work, there wasn’t something that I enjoyed that much. So it was kind of a shock, because obviously, I was following this route within scientific careers, which I thought were teaming up quite nicely for a long career in science.
Now I am doing something which I fully did not think I would ever be doing. To be honest, I wasn’t even aware of these types of of work that graduates could even be doing. But I somehow ended up here and so far I’m really enjoying it.
So for me, it was challenging to understand what it was that I wanted to do. I ultimately ended up kind of going off of a gut feeling that this was something that I wanted to do. And I kind of just made the jump and said, Hey, I’ll try it for a bit. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn’t, then I always have the option to go back to pursuing the scientific career, but maybe in a way that would be more fulfilling for what it is that I want to do. So it was definitely challenging to find the job in the first place, especially in something that was interesting to me. You’re always quite apprehensive because you’re quite nervous, like I’m making a big decision now, it’s going to impact my life. Do I really want to be making that decision? So I think that that’s probably not just true for me. Probably a lot of people experienced that.
Perception changed
As I’ve grown up my perception of how I see myself to others has definitely changed. Growing up I was always a person who was really honest and try to just project all of the happiness that I had. Because for some reason, I was just always very happy, and maybe that maybe that’s testament to the fact that I was always telling the people that I love them, or maybe they’re the product of one another.
I see myself now having a greater ability to connect with people than I did before, and I think a lot of that was because of the variety of relationships that I’ve had since I was young. I had a very limited set of friends and I’d kind of stick with them where I was comfortable. Then moving to London, going to uni, and now working, I’ve now met so many different people, I also went travelling in my year out. Just meeting all of these different people, you get to see how so many different people think about things, what their opinions are of things, and it’s just so rich to have those experiences. I think that really shaped me to the point that I am now, where if I’m trying to develop a friendship or relationship or whatever, I can do that a lot more easily now than I would have been able to when I was younger.
Becoming an adult
I do see myself as an adult now, but maybe a year and a half ago, I wouldn’t have. Now I’m living on my own. I’ve moved out, I’m no longer doing all of the uni things, I’m working now, and I’ve been in a long-term relationship. I’m checking all of the boxes to say that I’m an adult, so on paper, I am. How do I feel like? I’m feeling like I’m still making the transition to adulthood.
At first, I did find it a bit overwhelming. I didn’t understand what was going on. Especially when I started working. I looked at my payslip, and I was like, okay, I pay taxes, I pay National Insurance, pension contributions was going on to my money, and then I was like, okay, I have to pay my rent, I have to pay my council tax. And I was trying to get all my stuff in order. It sounds really stupid, but at that point in time, when I had just started working, I had no idea what was going on.
Now I’ve been working for a while, and everything is pretty easy, but at the same time, I just want to highlight the fact that I, I became an “adult” before COVID. So it’s not fully comparable to what a lot of people are currently going through, which is going to be more tricky, but it’s still possible for them to do.
A catalyst
I was 17 at the time when the loss happened, and that period of time really changed my life and required me to grow up a little bit faster than maybe I would have if the event did happen. So that definitely triggered a change in my sense of maturity, because I just realised how quick life could change. I’d always known that that would be the case, but I just never experienced it until that point in time. So it definitely acted as a catalyst for me becoming a little bit more mature a little bit faster than I would have.
Maturity is important
I definitely feel very mature, I think I make decisions where I try and think about all of the outcomes, and I just tried to have a very, like, clear, concise view on things. For context, I’m in a long-distance, long-term relationship at the moment, so I’m trying to make decisions about what is the best way for this situation to move towards a position where we both want it to be. So that would most likely involve one of us moving to where the other person lives, and so I’m trying to make decisions based off of that, like, how feasible it is for one of the persons to move.
Being mature is definitely something that you need, because with these decisions, there are a lot of emotions involved, and if you let those emotions kind of take hold of you, you can end up saying and doing things that you don’t really mean, but you’re just saying in the heat of the moment. So I think being mature and always having a very high field of look on things is really important.
I think I’m quite lucky
I really enjoy the work that I do. I’m enjoying the company that I work for and the people I work with. It can be challenging at times where you have to put in some long hours and work late and sometimes work on the weekends, but when you enjoy something, even though it’s challenging, you don’t really see it as a challenger, you see it as another thing that you’ve got to work on.
Then on the other side, I’ve got a very good group of friends that I grew up with, regularly. To be honest, I really enjoyed my early 20s, like going out, going for walks, and we went on a small trip together to the Peak District for a week. So we’re doing more adult things now.
I had a lot of freedom as well when I was 18 and I’d just moved to uni, but I feel like now I can make more decisions based off of what I what it is I really want to do. When you’re at uni and you’re in a group of like 10 people, and someone wants to go here, everyone’s like, Okay, let’s go, Okay, fine, let’s go. Whereas now, I can actually choose things that I want to do I have, I’m fortunate enough to have the money enough to support myself and to support the things that I want to do.
I’m enjoying my early 20s more than more than I did when I was 18. I think it’s freedom, a bit more responsibility, which is quite nice to have, and just making sure you maintain your values from even before this time as well. So yeah, I’m really enjoying it.
My closest friends from uni… there is a group of five of us, including me. We just get along so well, no one’s ever thought about not maintaining those relationships and so it’s been quite effortless to keep those relationships with them. I’m just quite lucky.
The central role
I’d definitely say that my family and my girlfriend and her family play a really central role in my life, and then my friends are also part of the central role of my life, but only the closest ones. The ones I talk with every day, they’re the ones who understand me the best, I understand them very well, and it’s just spending that time with each other.
It’s just like your family. If you spend all your time with your family, you’re going to get to know them well, and they’re going to get to know you and it’s just been the same with the friends in this group that we have. We talk every day, we meet, we go for beers, we chat, get dinners, we do all the adult things now, which I think is quite nice, making that transition from doing uni things together, playing video games and stuff to now kind of do more like grown up things and going on trips together.
Where someone is worth it…
When my girlfriend was here, a while ago now, last year, she was here for about two weeks. During the week, we woke up really early every day and we used to go on walks and do loads of different things that we had never really done before, because when you take a day off at work, you’re off; whereas if you take a day off at uni, you still need to study. There’s no such thing as a day off when you’re at university. So it’s just doing all of these things that we were doing the little activities, we went to an escape room, just stuff like that, that was really nice. Those kinds of activities where you actually have time now being an adult, I mean, obviously you have less time with work, but when you do have time, you can do what you want with it, and that’s a nice thing.
We’ve been together for five years and a bit now, and it was for the four years we were together because she was in London with me. Now she is in New York and we have been long-distanced for longer than we expected, but if something’s worth it, if someone is worth it, you put the effort in, and that’s just that’s just how it is.
Home & London
One of the things is probably interesting to talk about. I moved to London for university and then I’ve been here ever since, but if you’re moving city to work, that can be, I can imagine, quite challenging. You’re not only in a different work environment, you’re in a different home environment, so you don’t have those personal friendships and relationships in your new kind of geographical location, and you’re gonna have to try and build both up at the same time, which I think could be quite challenging. Obviously not impossible, very much possible, but I think that would be quite challenging.
I really like being at home with my family in Leicester, that is definitely where I like to be. So I’d say Leicester is probably the most important place to me, and then London after that.
Don’t overthink
I definitely like to be aware of what’s going on in the present. Not to mean that I didn’t think about the past or the future, but I don’t need to worry about the future because I feel like that takes up a lot of capacity in my brain that I don’t need to take up. I try not to overthink about things which don’t need to be over thought about.