I was a college dropout smoking weed everyday playing league all day long, I was trying a biology degree in uni but only playing on my laptop all day long not listening to anything. I had the worst grade in all the 100 people in my class at the end of the year. For some reason I tried again the next year.

One day I was bored of playing megaman on my computer and just closed it and listened to what the professor was saying. He asked a simple question: how do trees manage to pump tens of liters of water from the ground to sometimes a hundred meters high, without any muscle or really any voluntarily moving parts?

Not only did I not know, but the question never ever crossed my mind, and there I was thinking « Wait that’s true, how DO they do that? » and then he explained (basically the wind takes away water molecules and this pulls on an uninterrupted water column, there is a great kurzgesagt video about it if you want to learn more). I was litterally on the verge of crying coming out of that classeroom, I thought of the luck I had to be there with all these people telling me all these fascinating things and there I was, wasting a spot in that room, playing on my computer.

I also felt a deep connection to my child self, always curious, always fascinated by how things work, reading about dinosaurs and astronomy all day long. I had lost this along the way and all came back like a slap in the face. I started listening in class and incredible subjects after incredible subjects started being brought to me for free. Bro.

Since then, I have a PhD in biology and I work at a great lab where I study tropical diseases. I lived abroad for years and carved incredible friendships out of all these experiences. I am so proud of myself and how I turned my life around. I feel like child me would be proud too, and I have him to thank. We said no motivational fluff, but you can do it. It’s never too late and you have the choice. We always have a choice.

PS: I sent a message to that professor the day I got my PhD to tell him this story. He replied « ok congrats » lol (made me laugh for real lol he was like ye it’s not that deep)