Today I want to talk about what I consider is the biggest turning point of my life. It happened when I was in the seventh grade. Before I talk about that turning point, I need to provide some context that led to this point and made it the biggest. Before my seventh grade, I was an average to below average student. I used to get mostly B grades and some C grades. But that was not the problem. The main problem was my self confidence and self- esteem were at rock bottom. This problem was self-created.
As a child, I did not like to talk to anyone nor did I want anyone to talk to me. I liked being in my own world. There were many people in my class who didn’t know I existed as I never talked to them or I never made my presence felt in the class. I hit a low point with my self confidence and my self esteem when I had a conversation with myself in the sixth grade when I asked myself what do I want to become when I grow up. I had heard some people talking about it where someone said he wanted to be an engineer and someone said doctor and pilot. The answer I got from within still resonates with me more than 25 years later even today. My inner voice said I am incapable of being anything in life. I am bad at studies and I don’t talk to anyone and nobody really cares about me. On that day I felt like I hit rock bottom with my life.
While I was going thru this in my head, I entered seventh grade. In my state, seventh grade is a big deal because we have board exam for the finals. Also passing this grade gives us entry into high school which means serious stuff. With what was going on in my head, there was no way I could expect to do well in the board exam. My parents must have thought about the importance of this grade and were looking for some options that could help me.
That is when they took a decision that changed my life. My parents decided to get private tuitions for me and decided to send me to a particular teacher. The biggest turning point is not their decision to get private tuitions for me but the teacher they picked for it. My teacher was a good one and a popular one in my school but more importantly all the toppers in my class used to come there. At the beginning of the year, I was ranked 37 in a class of 60. But over the next two months, due to my teacher’s effort, I moved from 37 to 17th in the next unit test. That gave me some confidence. But what gave me a boost to my self esteem and my confidence was the toppers in my class started to recognize me and greet me. Before I know it, they started to invite me to play football and cricket. I never thought this would happen. By the end of the year, my confidence and my self esteem had taken a 360 degree turn and I started to believe that I can do well in the final board exam and I did. I scored 447 out of 600. If you were to ask me or my parents at the beginning of the year if I can score so much, both of us would have said no. This laid a solid foundation for my self confidence and I started to believe I can achieve something.
I am eternally grateful to my parents for making the decision to send me to that particular teacher for private tuitions which not only led me to improve in studies but laid a strong foundation for my self confidence and boosted my self esteem. I owe all the success in my life to that biggest turning point in my life.
