The journey of University student is unique and remarkable. After two years of intense High School, like other people I believed my life would be now full of freedom. To top it off with cherry, it is full of freedom.
But my sense of freedom may differ from what others seek. I enjoyed exploring the unknown world that I was in. My ending line for this story is, we were able to do the work on projects we liked as the college granted fundings requested for reasonable projects and a whole room for that matter.
Let’s time-travel back to the start of my life as 1st year undergrad student. As soon as I attended the college, I searched the freedom I sought for. I found two major clubs to work on; Advanced Robotics Club (ARC) and Project Association for Computer and Electronics (PACE). Both the clubs had different selection process and principles they ran by. ARC was more like a group where the existing members selected new recruits after their own evaluation. Whereas PACE was under the administration of College; the selection process was done by the selection committee formed by the Head of Department.
The Advanced Robotics Club (ARC) had showmanship. They came to our class and presented how welcoming their club were. They had organized an event with few days seminar and a competition, The Ticket to ARC. The Top 5 winning team were given chance for interview to be member of ARC. I was extremely excited to be part of ARC. I convinced my friends to take part in it, we were ready for it.
As the seminar started, we realized that the organization was done poorly. We couldn’t hear a word the instructor said nor we could see the demonstration done and the slides from the projector. But we were joyful that we had a mentor assigned who could teach us personally to grab that ticket to interview. Alas, we never got to meet our mentor properly. BOOM! My excitation and enthusiasm shattered all over. The hardware of the robot we were working on was failing every-hour, making us re-write the code once again. We somehow made it to the final day, The Competition Day. We were all praying our hearts out for our robot to work and successfully complete its mission. It was as if the universe never intended us to be in ARC; we didn’t make it to Top 5.
I wasn’t ready to give up so I spoke with the President of ARC. I requested him for the interview and showed him how sincere I was for that matter. The reply completely shattered me, “Okay, I will let you have the interview. Still, we don’t intend to accept you. The seats for new recruit is already fixed.” Taking the interview would be a gunshot to my pride so I didn’t take the offer. I knew the President of ARC followed the Code of Conduct of their club, but finding no way to be in the club was unbearable for me.
I realized what rejection felt like and I vowed to learn from it and not make excuses.
“Fail Early. Fail Often. Fail Forward.”
Our college always had annual event and during my life as 1st year student, I took part in Open Hardware Competition where I made “High Security Surveillance Camera” within a week. My friends supported my project but wining against so-called AI Robot that can talk is slim to none. Even though, working on the project encouraged me to progress.
After a year came out a notice for new recruitment in PACE. The remaining pieces inside me got all excited up once again. It was very hard to get in PACE as a committee of teachers took the selection process. I had good reputation among college faculty members as Class Representative, Semester Scholarship holder and a good student. I took my time creating resume and applied for it. On contrast to ARC, all the application were accepted for interview process. After a week, it was time for our interview.
I had already got taste of rejection and misfortunes so I was hoping this interview to go well. All the same, we had a test at the exact time. I stood out of the interview room with book in my hand for the test. Before my turn came, we were called to give our test. I was stressed out. As a ray of light in the dark; I knew the senior who was assigned as the coordinator of selection process that day. So, I spoke with the coordinator about the problem and he listed our interview at the end of the list. All I had in my mind was the interview so i hope you know how my test went. It went south at the speed of light.
Finally, it was time for my interview. I was nervous like a ripen tomato. I went in, I could see about 7 teachers all over me. The vibe inside the room was intense and all eyes were on me. The interviewers started asking questions and examining me one by one; I could only hear questions: How many are you backlogs? Why do you want to join PACE? Why should we accept you for PACE? What are you interests? How can you contribute to PACE?… I answered all the question as genuinely as possible without stuttering. I was so emerged in it I didn’t realize how much time had passed. I felt sad the interview ended and happy at the same time as I had given my best and was determined to pursue my goals despite rejection.
“Dream it. Wish it. Do it.”
After a week the result of selection process came out. My heart was racing as I scanned through the list. “I GOT IN!!!!” I shouted inside my head as soon as I saw my name in the list. I was in Cloud 9. I was a member of the club that started annual event trend in the college and had support of the college.
Getting into PACE meant I could learn skills such as Leadership, Team Coordination, Event Organization and many more. Within a year of being a part of PACE, we won “Software Engineering Competition” in Sagarmatha Techo-Fest, participated in various tech events, travelled many colleges for competitions and even went to IIT, Mumbai for competition by holding second position in Nepal. To top it all off, we were able to do the work on projects we liked as the college granted fundings requested for reasonable projects and a whole room for that matter.
If we believe and work on our dreams no matter how big or small it may be, the success will find us. We are destined to fit in our puzzle. Your worth is bound to be recognized by the world one way or another.
“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”
