Why do I want to work in Education?
My stories of learning, unlearning and building.
Encouragement
Back in the early school days, I remember myself as a shy kid. Added, I was pretty weak in academics. My grades typically were around the last five places of our entire class. I felt pretty dumb, and on many occasions, I pretended I was sick just to skip school and avoid punishments.
However, a Math exam I’d in sixth grade had changed the entire course of my studies later. I secured 93% marks, the 2nd highest in the class and the highest I ever scored before. My cousin who came on a break to town taught math, helped me in the exam preparation. While helping, she also told I was actually doing good. I didn’t know if she really meant it but it was the first time I ever received such appreciation for my studies. It felt great, I took confidence and came even well in 7th grade. I scored 100% in all the math exams in 7th grade. My performance improved all round from then after.
All that was happened in this tiny little coastal town called Sompeta where I was born and spent my childhood. My parents are from a middle-class family, my father runs a Fish Business.
Growing up, I realized how different my father used to treat us compared to many other parents in small towns. Many I feel are a bit rough with their children, especially in small towns. Children receive several scoldings and beat-ups for their mistakes, poor-academics or any wrong-doings than explaining through things.
However, my father was different. He didn’t scold me when he found the love letter I wrote to a girl when I was 14; he didn’t humiliate/insult me for my poor grades like others; he didn’t beat me up when he found me watching adult content secret at the age of thirteen— instead, he walked with me, took me on bike rides away from home, explained through things, empathized and showed me character by an example. Sometimes I wonder if it’s possible to have one like him in a town like ours.
Direction
During my 5 years time in the USA studying masters and working, I loved visiting universities — mainly the top ones like Stanford, UC Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, UW, NYU. I got a good feeling just walking around, I felt the energy of great minds and their contributions that have pushed humanity forward.
While I was in school, as my grades started to improve I started dreaming. At different times in my life, I fantasized being a scientist and an artist doing great work and wished to join the leagues of great minds in the best Universities creating beautiful work. Unfortunately, fate had me good in academics but not great. But it was actually during high school(12th) a devastating blood sucking disease had thrown me into untold misery. Doctors had told my parents that I was detected with Tuberculosis. I was put down to 40 kilos from 55 kilos in two months. I had to take four-month home recovery to take that disease out of my body and all that happened during the crucial time of giving engineering entrance exams. My recovery was not easy for me, and neither for my family.
Most of the entrance exams for colleges had passed deadlines while I was recovering, and I didn’t prepare for any. It was such an important phase of any Indian student, but I was lying around clueless and ignorant on how it was going to impact my future. During that time, I managed to take one state-level entrance exam and I didn’t score that well. My father wanted to take a shot applying colleges rather than investing one more year studying for entrance exams. Others also pursued him that he scored better than many in the town and so he should apply. So, my parents took a flyer and sent me to study Metallurgy and Material Sciences in JNTU, Hyderabad. I did both my bachelors and masters in Material sciences only to realize this was not what I wanted after. I mean it was a good decision of my father’s knowledge to put me in a nice college but the field hadn’t helped me well to grow.
I struggled to find opportunities in Material sciences to learn, grow and work. I was jobless for quite some time, and the situations had forced me to give up being in the field. The other alternative was to work in IT to survive, and I didn’t step back to take it. It was quite daunting to change careers but I did some programming when I was a kid and felt I might be ok as well.
In fact, I loved it. I liked the plethora of opportunities here. I liked the opportunities for learning, growing. I liked the money I was getting for my work. I liked the rewards for my learning. It felt like I’m cruising. I built up good enough confidence in two years after working for a software firm and I said to myself that I can live on my own now. I wanted to build my own future.
It was for the first time I realized I had wings and I set them free. But before building a future, I wanted to see the world. I wanted to explore who we are and what kind of stardust I was made of. I quit my job in the USA later and traveled around the world for one and a half years. I explored 25 countries on backpacking trails, traveling cheap, staying with locals, trying and experiencing anything I could put my hands on. I experienced cultures, learned languages, and experienced a spiritual one inside my own. I felt like life made me experience all of this to unlearn the things I learned before and show me a different walk of life.
Connecting Dots
1. Encouragement
Today is a different day. I like to think that I came off as a good student; few things worked out for me, and few didn’t but I feel great for the things I’ve done. I do realize that I challenged my own status-quo.
Looking back, I always recall how that little encouragement I got during an exam had such a big impact on my life and without it, I wouldn’t have made it to what I’m today.
Also, the kind of parenting I had received from my father to explore my own thoughts that I wouldn’t be here and I’m very grateful for that. One day, I thought about my cousin back home in my town who is also my best friend. He came from a financially stable family, could afford the needs of an upper-middle-class family but he failed to do well in Education. He was a high school dropout and handling a furniture shop now. He made mistakes like any young boy would do and so he did receive treatment consists of scolding, joining him in a hostel at an early age from his parents. And it happened to many other friends and kids in my town. At various times in my life, I thought about them and asked how would their life be like have they had a father like mine? I tend to believe they could have been much successful than what I’m now. Also, how would my life be like had I not been born to my father?
It’s scary to think about it but I’m grateful that things worked out in my favor. I wouldn’t have been the first in my family to do a Masters, went to the USA, and traveled around like a crazy nomad. It is surreal to think about how this astonishingly small probability had put me down here now.
And what another way to pay some gratitude to my father, my cousin’s and everyone who helped me apart from working in Education?
2. Direction
I spent 7 years studying Metallurgy and Material Sciences only to figure out I want to pursue something else. I got those scorecards as first place in my Bachelors, 3.6/4 in masters but that didn’t matter. I knew now that it was not right for me. I gave up becoming a scientist there. I felt powerless oversearching low paid jobs in a small market. I came to realize that I was not in the right environment to express myself best. And in fact, I felt mediocre.
But when I saw myself doing well in programming, I felt good. I don’t think I’m a good programmer but each day I got better, consistently doing better things. I wished somebody had directed me 12 years ago. I wished I had a mentor. I fancied myself into thinking where I’m building great things now with some great minds together had I been directed well.
Unfortunately, this has often been the case with our Education system. It felt like I was disabled for many years and are so many like me. After experiencing the US education, my visit to a few universities while traveling and talking to students I realized how much ours differs in terms of choice, availability of information and resources.
While there were several important parts I lacked and missed a few like proper direction, I asked myself what if there is another way to experience the joy of a person when their career wishes are fulfilled. What if the best way to recover the time I lost earlier is by building something that helps people find a direction through my stories of unlearning? Well, I could perhaps see a young village boy like me become a scientist or an artist or even a better one.
Conclusion: (So, what’s now?)
I have this vague idea of building something that has my father like affection, my cousin like encouragement, and my pain like foundation to give a direction that can help people better their lives. All with a focus on simplicity, ingenuity and a great appeal. And this is what we are building at Edsify.
Well, the world was so overrun with war and pain and misery, the daily grind was so exhausting and often unjust — maybe the only answer, I thought, was to find some prodigious, improbable dream that seemed worthy, that seemed fun, that seemed a good fit, and chase it with an athlete’s single-minded dedication and purpose. Like it or not, life is a game. Whoever denies that truth, whoever simply refuses to play, gets left on the sidelines and I didn’t want that. (Shoe Dog — A memoir from Nike Founder)
And I do believe life is a game and I don’t want to be left on the sidelines.
