My Biggest Enemy

I think my current self is my future self's biggest enemy. Tonight, I was talking to someone about high school classes he should consider taking. But he seemed hopeless. He thought some of his previous choices in the 9th and 10th grade were gonna determine his path not just in high school and college but the rest of his life. He thought that he would not be able to make it where he dreams of being because of where he is right now.

I tried my best to explain that even if certain things about who he is right now might determine the next couple of years of his life, that doesn't mean the next 5–10 years of his life are determined. After our conversation ended, I really couldn't stop thinking about what I told him: "No matter who you are right now and where you stand, you can do things to make almost anything imaginable possible." I realized I thought like him too. And I was worried about how my brain uses where I am right now as a bias toward where I can possibly be in the future.

In high school, I wasn't really good in English-heavy classes — I’m talking humanities, history, … and I always blamed moving from Iran to America for setting me back. I would even write about it on my college app's “special circumstances” essay. But now, I look back at that and realize that whether I spoke great English or not should not determine what I want to do 5–10 years down the line. And I am not trying to give you the same bullshit of "don't let anyone tell you that you can't do anything." That is not true. My English was going to affect what college I got into no matter how hard I studied. I could have studied harder, but no matter how much I studied, how many more hours I spent doing SAT Reading prep, I would have had a very low probability of getting into Harvard or MIT, because the 5 years before applying to college I was not actively doing certain things that I could have, and there were factors such as moving.

So no, I’m not saying I could have sucked it up and killed myself and made magic happen. What I am saying is this: even if I didn't go to an Ivy League, despite trying or not trying, what I want to do 5–10 years down the line is possible. In Iran, there is a saying that means "it does take time, but it is bound to happen" (سوخت و سوز داره، ولی دیر و زود نداره).

I am 22 years old right now. A software engineer. If I decide today, right now, that I want to become a doctor, then I can in fact be a doctor in 10 years. I can apply to a bachelor's in biology or any pre-med major right now, start as early as fall 2026, spend 4 years getting my bachelor's, work hard and get into medical school, and become a doctor in around 10 years. Not that I want to be a doctor — but if I wanted to, and obviously if I put in the hard work needed, I could theoretically become a doctor.

So yeah, my current self and my biases about who I am and my past do greatly influence what I think my limits are in the future. I hope to be able to think about this as I live my life and not let my brain tell me what I can or can't do in the future (sooner or later). And this brings me to my next point, which is: when you want something, just do it. Simple. Just do it. You are not blocked by anything. Now, more than ever, we humans, individually by ourselves, are capable of making so much progress. The keyword is Momentum. More to come.