Ashish Labh liked this
In September 1988, I arrived in America as a 17-year-old undergraduate on a student visa.
My parents put me on a plane from India with a dream: to study space engineering, a field that was not readily accessible back home. I still remember landing in America feeling completely overwhelmed, shocked, and nervous.
As I settled in, I realized that space engineering was not my calling. In this land of the free and home of the brave, one of its greatest gifts is the freedom to chart your own path, and I decided to switch to computer engineering. Computers fascinated me, and the belief that hard work could open doors began to sink in.
Florida was my beginning. My educational journey then took me through Ohio, Iowa, Maryland, and Kansas. I started my career in Kansas, spent a brief period in Pennsylvania, and in 1996 moved to California to co-found my first startup. California has been home ever since, with brief chapters in Stockholm and Mumbai.
Along the way, America gave me far more than an education and a career. It gave me the place where I met my wife, built a family, raised our child, and cared for our parents. It gave me opportunities to learn, build, fail, succeed, and contribute.
My American story has crossed cities, states, industries, and phases of life. But at its core, it remains the same: a chance to start, to build, to contribute, and to dream bigger than I ever imagined possible.
So many people have helped make this journey possible—far too many to name—but you know who you are. Thank you.
Happy 250th Birthday, America. 🇺🇸