Deep down, I always knew my learning and processing modalities were different, which is probably why I felt the need to register for the 12-week Recall Memory Masterclass by Jim Kwik. Amidst India's career-driven culture, the pandemic introduced me to the "All Rounder" concept: becoming a "Fulfilled" human by focusing on all 12 Categories of Life in the Life Book program by Mindvalley. These two courses I took in 2021 became the foundations for the years that followed.
So when I started my undergraduate degree, I had a simple-sounding goal inspired by the film A Silent Voice: "Starting tomorrow, I'll look everyone in the eye." Relying on my newly built foundations to focus on two distinct domains, My Career Life and My Social Life, I pushed myself to thrive and eventually earned the "All Rounder of the Year" award.
However, during my gap year, while preparing for the Joint Admission for Masters, my first attempt at nurturing My Love Life acted as a mirror. It exposed a deep, neglected need for healing, making me realise I was still far from being a fully balanced, fulfilled human (the true "All Rounder").
After getting an All India Rank of 197 and thus admission into the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD), I remember telling myself, "I'll get some interesting lines written on the palms of my hands" (often thought to represent fate) because, apparently, folks from these top-tier colleges have their "lives changed" when they get in.
It wasn't quite déjà vu. But life at IITD seemed more like holding up a mirror to my undergrad and all of my schooling. Hence after years of persistent self-doubt and countless physical tests at IIT Delhi—including inconclusive MRI scans—I turned to the campus mental health services. A four-month assessment finally provided the answer: Autism and ADHD. It suddenly made sense why my undergraduate goal was simply to "look everyone in the eye." My world view had been like the Tom & Jerry show: one where faces are never shown.
Soon I began with medication, psychoeducation, and trauma-informed therapy: three incredible women guiding me through 70+ sessions (and counting) to help me understand my unique brain wiring, and hence truly getting an education, while beginning to nurture another category of my human development: My Emotional Life.
I continued getting education from IITD.
I dropped-in on some electives courses.
& decided the little-known concept of "ADHD Coaching" in India is going to be the interesting line I will now stand on, marking the start of another important category of my human development: My Life Vision.
I really had a hard time writing this page, wanting to share every single tiny domino incident that led me to take the decision of being an ADHD coach, however I've tried to keep it brief, and i will end now using the lines from the book "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous":
"...so that, looking up, you can no longer fathom the explosion they came from, only a family of butterflies floating in clean, cool air, their wings finally, after so many conflagrations, fireproof."