lessons take from obstacles can be fundamental to later success

The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to
later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or
failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience?
Life is fragile, precious and unpredictable. What keeps you prepared for
life’s adversities is not the might; academic or otherwise, but simple
things. A caring touch, a loving family and a few words of kindness, are
what makes us stronger. The crisis in my life also taught me that applying
a Schumpeterian logic in life is not always a prudent choice and that the
technological enablement sans empathy is just a mundane algorithm.
My grandmother, who has nurtured me since my infancy was diagnosed
with a third stage Colorectal Cancer about four years ago. Overnight, our
lives were turned upside down.
While my father was running pillar to post, looking for the best hospice for
her. I, as a young child, simply could not bear my grandmother’s plight.
The woman who has delighted me with some of the best tiffin meals,
taken care of me as her own, was now a child herself. Over the next few
months, her condition only deteriorated. The Chemotherapy and radiation
exposure changed her appearance and made her weak to the point of
utter helplessness.
I proactively worked with my family in these difficult times. Whether it was
tending to her day-to-day needs or accompanying my father to hospitals
and doctors and spending time with my grandmother in clinics and at
home. The episode made me first-handedly witness a world that I was not
aware of, yet.
I was superbly impressed with the kindness and the empathy of the
doctors and nurses that treated my grandmother.
The positive will of my father and my mother, their constant efforts, and
the sheer endurance with which they helped my grandmother fight the
deadly disease. It was a side of my parents that filled me gratitude.
They were my new heroes.
When visiting doctors or in internet forums, I took keen interest with the
diagnosis and discussions between medical professionals and my father. I
started utilizing my academic keenness to research on the topic of cancer
from a technological point of view.
In the last four years, I have completed multiple accreditations in Artificial
Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Structures and Algorithms. I also
interned with a firm that is deploying Data technologies to develop
prototypical innovation in early-detection of cancer cells. The learning
journey regarding these complex domains was an up-hill task. I was