I think about how policy shapes lives.

I'm 21, turning 22 in April. Last year, I lived in three countries, worked four jobs, co-founded a non-profit, and figured out what makes me happy. (Spoiler: it's not what I expected.)

Most people see policy as abstract—numbers in reports, theories in papers. I see it differently. I see Ukrainian veterans who can't sleep, Aboriginal communities fighting for their land, students drowning in broken systems. Policy is just the story of how we decide who gets help and who doesn't.

I grew up in a third-tier city in India. My dad's first salary after a major accident was $100 a month. We lived in a house where water dripped through the ceiling. Now I study at TCU on a full ride, work at a DC think tank analyzing healthcare and trade policy, and somehow ended up advising organizations in South Africa and Australia.

At 16, I built Cancer-Ex—the world's first saliva-based pancreatic cancer test. Cost: $1.75. Won India's highest civilian award for students. Raised $80K. Then I left it. I have this pattern: I start things, work obsessively for months, then lose interest. Cancer research, the think tank job I worked so hard to get, even the NGO I co-founded. I'm trying to figure out if that's a bug or a feature.

Last year in Cape Town, I was the happiest I've ever been. Not because of the work (policy consulting for land reform), but because I stopped running toward the next thing. I learned to swim in the ocean for the first time. Played tennis every other day. Spent time with people I actually liked. For once, I wasn't optimizing for the future.

Now I'm back in Texas, trying to find that feeling again. I work on tariff analysis at FREOPP, run a veterans' mental health non-profit, and take 60+ coffee chats because I'm good at selling myself even when I'm not sure what I'm selling. I speak four languages, use R and SQL, and think too much about why systems fail.

I don't know what I want to do next. But I know I want to work on things that matter, with people who tell me what I need to hear instead of what I want to hear. Everything else is negotiable.