It’s the final thirty seconds of your fight, your lungs are gasping for air, you can’t take the mental toll anymore, but you also know that these thirty seconds stand between you and that moment of glory. It’s at this moment where you conjure up all your strength, remember all the times you trained hard in the practice sessions and why you are standing where you are in the first place. This was just a metaphorical representation of what life could be like at moments, all the odds stacked against you to perform, but you still do, somehow anyway. Having tried to excel in all kinds of activities from a very young age, be it academics, extracurricular activities or just being the best football player on a field of 22, I realized pretty early on that all of these things didn’t come to me naturally. I wasn’t like some of the guys who were physically well built to play a sport or like some girls who had exceptional IQs to excel in a certain subject, but what I did have was the burning desire to be the best and do the best in whichever field I got into. To provide fuel to this fire, I just had one thing under my control and that was the amount of work I put in to achieve my goals, the amount of hours I put in practicing and the amount of sacrifices that I make. My only three ambitions in life thus far have been to represent my country on an international level, which I did manage to do in the field of Karate despite not having the physique of a Greek God. Second, I always wanted to excel in at least one subject and through my regular hours of practice, I did end up topping a lot of subjects at college, and eventually now I find myself at the hallowed portals of IIM Trichy. The last ambition that I had was to excel in the field of music, which I did by winning many accolades at college level and even at other independent competitions. The bottom line remains the same throughout, when talent doesn’t work hard, hard work beats talent, and that’s been the story of my life thus far.