It's a season in 2008. My parents just sold their flat in this beautiful place known to the world as Hackerville, and to us as Ramnicu Valcea. We're struggling - life after communism back home isn't easy, especially on my parents and my grandparents who suddenly have to learn to survive ridden by the burden of barriers breaking. Struggle is one, but the expectation of flourishing with no one helping but expecting you takes a toll, especially on my dad.
My dad is a legend, one of the top students in the Polytechnic back home. Pure intellect, generosity and kindness wrapped in years of wisdom and pain. It breaks my heart to see him trying to adapt to a new system and the guilt that comes with being unable to. One story about my dad: once someone asked him for an illegal favour and offered him loads of money - he didn't accept, and he taught us to do the same. You can outwin poverty, unlike integrity.
Back to the story. From the flat money, my parents buy me my first computer, this Sony Vaio laptop. They shouldn't have, they can't afford this - and I know it. But something about their weird kid and ramblings about tech specs and what this machine can do makes this dream come to life. My parents want a life for me that they didn't have, it's crystal clear now. At the time, it was harder to understand why they pushed so hard for education, but I see it now. And thanking them now that time has grown older in their smiles is bittersweet.
Their gamble pays off. I am 14 and moving to Bucharest to study maths for the olympiad on a scholarship. 10 to 12 hours a day, we're just starting and this pressure is all worth it at the time. Away from them isn't. Away for the first time, away with a machine of loving grace.
Fast forward to 2025 and three countries later - UK, Australia and now US. When did we get to Stanford? This feels surreal, and I am supposed to act like somehow I deserve this. But it's hard - the road here was filled with wonderful people, chance encounters that changed my life, and the best teams in the world. There were tough times too - I was told who I was by folks who didn't live this story, and they had no right, but I believed them. I believed them for a while, and I saw my dad in me when I did. But unlike my dad, the world was kinder to me - it gave me a way out, it got me out, and now that I found who I am, it's so much easier to see windows where previously all I saw were closed doors, forever shut.
Stories matter. They get you out, they keep you going. The story I wanna write with the people in my life is a story about barriers breaking in the face of true collaboration, compassion, integrity and creativity. I didn't know my motivations until this year - for a while I thought I wanted to make a big discovery, but I'd rather be the coach for the people who can make it happen. And that's okay, sometimes the greatest win isn't in striving to be something great, but doing your part in realizing that greatness in other people. And here's where my love for tech comes - that laptop opened my world, it allowed me to see others, it helped me not be afraid of the great unknown and reach out. It took a window to open so many others, and it's now helped me realize what I want to do.
The truth of my story is that I am still so angry. There's a lot of unfairness in the world, there's a lot of voices, some inside, that tell us to shrink. Our systems are built on competition, and some of it it's good, but the empty kind isn't. For a while, I thought the right way to be angry was to break things down. Now, I've come to realize that another way is to create instead. "Move slowly, grow things".
The greatest stories are the stories yet to be told. We gotta stay bold.
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