“Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” - John Lennon
I never thought I’d end up in tech. Not even close.
If you’d asked 17-year-old me what the future looked like, I’d have told you about stadiums, not screens. About training grounds, not terminals.
This is the story of how that changed.
The Sports Dream
Growing up, I was the kid who was always outside. School wasn’t really about textbooks for me, it was about the field. Sports wasn’t just a hobby; it was the only future I could picture. At some point, I genuinely believed I’d make a career out of it.
After 12th, I cleared multiple entrance exams and landed a seat at a government sports college. It felt like the plan was finally coming together.
Except it wasn’t.
The First Turning Point
The sports college was fine on paper, but reality hit different. The college didn’t have the proper facilities or specialization programs for my core game, the kind of infrastructure and focused training you need to actually go somewhere with it. After some time there, I had to face a truth I’d been avoiding:
This path wasn’t going to take me where I wanted to go.
So I dropped out.
It wasn’t easy. Coming back home, telling your family you’re starting over… that takes something out of you. But my childhood friend had also dropped his college around the same time, and we both came back to our hometown with the same blank page in front of us.
“Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is start over.”
A New Chapter
We both decided to take admission at the same college. I helped him get into B.Tech, and I went with BCA (Bachelor of Computer Applications), mostly because my family suggested it and I didn’t want a gap year on my record.
Let me be honest: I had zero technical background. I didn’t choose BCA because I loved computers. I chose it because the situation demanded a decision, and this was the best one available.
But here’s the thing about decisions made under pressure: sometimes they turn out to be the best ones you’ll ever make.
College: More Than a Degree
College wasn’t just about coursework. It became a place where I found some of the closest friends I’ll ever have. People who challenged me, supported me, and made those three years matter beyond the classroom.
We went through the COVID phase together: online classes, uncertainty, isolation. That period tested everyone, but it also taught me something important about resilience. When the world slows down, you either slow down with it or you find ways to keep moving.
I kept moving.
I ended up graduating with an A+ grade. Not because I was naturally brilliant at tech, but because I had one rule I’ve carried since childhood:
If I start something, I finish it. No exceptions.
The Mindset
Looking back, every hard challenge during that course (the subjects I didn’t understand, the concepts that felt alien, the nights where nothing made sense) taught me the same lesson:
Make it a do-or-die situation.
Not dramatically. Just internally. Set the bar high enough that you have to stretch to reach it. Then stretch.
I’ve always believed that if I can answer myself honestly, “Yeah, I gave everything I had,” then the outcome doesn’t matter as much. But funny enough, when you actually give everything, the outcomes tend to work out.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.” - Theodore Roosevelt
The Unexpected Path
I never planned to be in tech. I never imagined I’d go from chasing a sports career to completing a computer science degree. But every detour, every dropped plan, every restart… they weren’t failures.
They were redirections.
The discipline I built on the sports field? It showed up in how I approached deadlines. The resilience from starting over? It showed up every time I faced a concept I couldn’t understand. The competitive mindset? It never left, it just found a new arena.
Curious how this turned into a career? Read how I accidentally found QA and built my career.