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A pre-calculus teacher once told me I’d never be an engineer because I couldn’t draw a straight line or a perfect circle.
It sounds small now, but it wasn’t then.
When I was a teenager, all I wanted to be was an engineer.
I didn’t know what I wanted to build, only that it had to be bigger than me.
That dream didn’t fade.
It was interrupted.
That sentence stayed with me longer than it should have.
So I let go, not because I wanted to, but because I thought I had to.
What followed is something I’ve written about in different ways before.
The wandering.
The stress I didn’t yet know how to use.
The work that kept me busy but not fulfilled.
The slow learning of boundaries, especially around whose voices I allowed to define me.
I went through the mud trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life.
Then, quietly, things clicked.
Not all at once.
Not dramatically.
Just clearly enough to move.
I went back to college and finished my business degree.
Later, through a job opportunity I didn’t plan for, I found myself back in school again, this time pursuing an MBA in Engineering Management.
Not because I learned to draw better shapes.
But because I finally understood something important:
Engineering was never about lines or circles for me……
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It was about building systems that help people move forward.
What I want to build now is simple, but not easy.
I want to build communities.
I want to help people get closer to where they see themselves in the long run.
I want to create spaces where stress becomes fuel, change feels manageable, and letting go doesn’t mean giving up, just making room.
The dream didn’t die.
It grew up alongside me.
So I’ll leave you with this:
What dream did you set aside because someone else spoke too soon?
And what could you build now if you trusted the version of yourself that survived the uncertainty?
If this stirred something, reply.
That’s how building starts.