My success story
After graduated from high school, I took a small break before I started college, I moved to the US, and worked for a couple of years, but when I decided to enroll in college here. I had a goal of finishing it in 4 years and land a career in the field I had chosen. Unlike many college kids here who didn’t have many responsibilities, I had to work a full time job while attending college to pay for my tuition and living expenses. I had no time for social life, parties or any typical stuff college kids would do, after classes I would go to work and work till 10 or 11pm at night. At times, I worked 2 part-time jobs because when I was working at Trader Joe’s, they would periodically cut my hours based on store needs, also part-time employees can only work up to 32 hours a week maximum. To subsidize my expenses, I had a second job. I worked at different places such as banks, museum or after school programs.
Each semester I had to take 5-6 classes and during summer breaks, I had take an additional 1-2 classes to make sure I was on track to finish up in 4 years. There was no money for vacation. The only trip I took during college was when I visited my hometown for the first time in 3 years after coming to the US. I worked day and night, never missed an assignment, never late for an assignment, graduated with magna cum lauda, a GPA of 3.7, won 2 scholarships while in school and landed an internship at Peabody Essex Museum. While many of the classmates didn’t make it in the graphic design field, I got a job at an email marketing company as their email template and web designer for my first job. From there on, I moved on to bigger and better jobs, and I have been working in UI/UX field for 10 years now. I recently decided to follow my heart and start my own product/service.
In 2015…is when I discovered the art of Bharatanatyam, a difficult dance like Ballet but unlike others who started at age 5 or 10, I started learning it at a much later stage in my adult life. When I started it, I didn’t have a plan and I didn’t know this is what I wanted to do in life, I just liked the esthetics of the dance and the storytelling part of it. I never practiced an art so religiously before, but since day 1, I had made practice this dance a way of life. With a full time job on the side, I either got up really early in the morning or practiced late at night. It wasn’t easy, but I always prioritized my dance because I cannot live without it in my life, if a job is too demanding and prevents me from practice, then I would quit and find a new one that would accommodate my schedule. I went from practicing 2 days a week to 3 days a week to 5 days a week then to 6 days a week. Perhaps it is my upbringing in Beijing that has taught me to take bitterness and failure as a way of life, because in Chinese, we say, “eat bitter“ which literally translates to eat bitter, and without eating bitter, you will never taste the sweetness. It is analogy for anything you want to do in life, you have to first eat bitter.
The passion for this dance form grew only more as the years flew by. I feel like I have discovered a gem while taking a casual walk in the woods. Performing in the heart of where this art comes from has always been my dream and next Monday I will to go India to give my first solo performance in Chennai at a large event.
What are your goals in life? If you ever felt something was really hard and on the verge of giving up. Don’t! Because if you give up, you will never achieve your goal.