I was born and brought up in a small in a family of two children living in India. Since I am the first born, my family has great expectation from me. Since we were young, my parents let me take care of my small brother as they went on to search for means of survival since they were casual workers. Despite the responsibility laid upon me, I always had a dream to have a good education. I knew this as the only way to bring my family out of the daily struggles of life.

Throughout my childhood, I have gone through many difficulties. Most of my agonies were school related. My parents lacked enough rupees to settle school fees. We hardly had enough to eat in our house. This situation discouraged me and sometimes I felt like dropping out of school. Sometimes I had to help my parents pay my school fees. I did this by doing casual works like washing people’s clothes for some few Indian rupees. I even went to an extent of working as a barmaid to raise my school fees.

My brother was too young to lend a helping hand. We had to bring something home at the end of the day and whatever remained I paid my fees. This struggle continued for a long time. In primary school, I repeated classes several times because of failure to pay my school fees by the time the exams were due. I failed in some subjects, not because I was not bright, but because I stayed at home more than I went to school as the other students went for their lessons, I was doing chores to raise my school fees.

By God’s grace I landed a scholarship with the Dakota Indian foundation which helped me finish my primary education. However, I missed out in my secondary school scholarship program by one point. This was so disappointing to me. The foundation had come to my help but not early enough to help me catch up with the rest of the students. My absenteeism in school contributed to my not so good performance. However, I did not give up. I knew that by pushing on, I would be able to assist my brother pursue his dreams. I did not want him to go through what I was going through.

In my secondary school education, I went back to the past struggles of hustling for my fees. This time, I made sure not to miss classes. Although it was strenuous for me, I pushed on. The school administration was impressed by my performance. Since they knew that I had come from a poor background, they the board of governors offered to pay my fees and see me through the secondary education. I had a passion in physics and mathematics. I worked hard to make sure I did exemplary I these two disciplines. The other subjects came in handy and throughout my years in secondary school, I was the best performer in my class.

The time came to wind up my secondary education in 2013. I had prepared well for the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE). My hard work did not prove futile as I emerged one of the best performers in my country. I knew I had opened my doors to advance to my desired undergraduate course which for a long time had been Actuarial science. I knew I had qualified for it due to my good performance in my best subjects; both physics and mathematics. I got a scholarship with HSBC scholarships and now I can achieve my goal and assist my people.