{"id":2605,"date":"2025-01-28T14:52:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/?p=2605"},"modified":"2026-02-03T10:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T10:11:09","slug":"how-i-became-the-odd-one-who-actually-won","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/how-i-became-the-odd-one-who-actually-won\/","title":{"rendered":"How I Became the Odd One Who Actually Won"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The path less traveled may lead to an extraordinary destination.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

It feels almost surreal when I think back to where it all started\u2014at 18, when I left my hometown in Rajasthan, alone, to pursue my undergrad in Gujarat. I wasn\u2019t the type of student who always aced exams, and I certainly wasn\u2019t the star of my school. I was the kid who needed supplementary exams to make it through. But somewhere between navigating a new city and trying to prove myself, I went from barely passing to graduating as the top computer programming student in my batch. That was my first big win, and it set the tone for everything that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came my master\u2019s in Chennai, and that\u2019s where the rebel in me really began to take shape. I wasn\u2019t content with just the academics. The system there was all about grades, grades, and more grades. Everyone around me was obsessed with getting 90%, but I realized early on that life wasn\u2019t going to ask for perfect scores\u2014it was going to ask for adaptability, creativity, and grit. So, I threw myself into everything I could: I joined the web designing club, the entrepreneurship club, and started pushing myself into spaces where I could learn things that weren\u2019t taught in classrooms. I was the only one in my MCA batch who participated in all these extracurricular activities. I became the stage anchor for a musical event (and I still remember how I couldn\u2019t even do a one-liner intro in front of my classmates earlier), organized tech conferences, and even started doing impromptu sales. I didn\u2019t know I could handle any of this, but I did it. And that\u2019s how I went from being a shy student to the one who had the guts to rag my seniors when they tried ragging me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being in a Marwari family, I always felt like the odd one out. But it didn\u2019t stop at academics or even breaking norms within the family. I married a Tamilian at 26\u2014his family doesn\u2019t speak Hindi, and mine doesn\u2019t speak Tamil. For my family, that was a huge leap. But for me, it was another step toward realizing that there was no one path to follow and that the idea of being different was something I could embrace, not fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduation, I found myself at a crossroads. I was in a high-paying design job, but I hated the culture. It wasn\u2019t fulfilling. So, I left it all behind, choosing to earn far less and work late hours while I freelanced, picked up new skills, and started collaborating with early-stage startups. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I needed something more meaningful, and I wasn\u2019t about to settle. Then, out of nowhere, I made another leap into design recruitment\u2014a field that didn\u2019t even exist when I started. I built a reputation, became an expert, and the next thing I knew, I was teaching companies how to hire for design roles. It was wild. But that was my life: learning to make paths where there weren\u2019t any.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 2020, I started pushing myself to build habits that I once thought were impossible. I couldn\u2019t sit through reading more than five pages of a book without falling asleep. But in 2023, I read 112 books.
I never thought I could write a blog, but after a personal challenge in June 2020, I wrote my first blog post, and since then, I\u2019ve written over 100.
I couldn\u2019t imagine traveling alone, but at 30, I took my first solo trip\u2014and then, I did five more in the same year.
I used to kill cacti with my inability to care for plants, but now, I grow thousands of them with my husband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, I couldn\u2019t even do a 15-minute hike. Yet, in 13 months, I completed six 4-day Himalayan treks. Those treks were emotional\u2014each step was a battle between the physical and mental self. But they taught me something important: the strength I thought I lacked was always there. It just took me some time to realize it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never followed the traditional path, and it wasn\u2019t always easy. There were moments when I felt insecure, out of place, and like I was just too different. But what I\u2019ve learned is that being the odd one out isn\u2019t a failure. It\u2019s a success. It\u2019s the success that allows you to redefine your own journey, pick up skills most people overlook, and create something that\u2019s uniquely yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, when I look at where I am today, I see all those years of struggle, all those wrong turns, and all those strange choices\u2014like they were part of a bigger story that I was writing for myself. It\u2019s my story, and it\u2019s far from over. The truth is, I didn\u2019t need to fit in. I needed to grow, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been doing, every step of the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And trust me, if I can go from barely making it through school to scaling mountains (literally and figuratively), then so can you. It’s all part of the process. Just keep going, even when you’re not sure you have the strength to keep climbing. You might be surprised at what you\u2019ll find when you get to the top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It feels almost surreal when I think back to where it all started\u2014at 18, when I left my hometown in Rajasthan, alone, to pursue my undergrad in Gujarat. I wasn\u2019t the type of student who always aced exams, and I certainly wasn\u2019t the star of my school. I was the kid who needed supplementary exams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","pgc_sgb_lightbox_settings":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[52,10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-learnings","8":"category-personal","9":"entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-02-02-19.34.31-A-minimal-hand-drawn-illustration-of-a-woman-walking-alone-on-a-long-winding-path.-The-path-is-set-in-a-vast-open-landscape-symbolizing-solitude-a-600x400.webp","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DALL\u00b7E-2025-02-02-19.34.31-A-minimal-hand-drawn-illustration-of-a-woman-walking-alone-on-a-long-winding-path.-The-path-is-set-in-a-vast-open-landscape-symbolizing-solitude-a-600x600.webp","author_info":{"display_name":"vasudha","author_link":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/author\/vasudha\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2605"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4872,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2605\/revisions\/4872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ideaweb.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}