I woke up to the sound of the alarm.

Finally, the day for which I have been waiting was here.

Today was the day I’ll be joining the medical college.

I am super thrilled about it and couldn't wait for it.

I thought of all the efforts I had to put in to get here.

I was brought up in an orphanage. At a very young age, I realized that I'll have to put in more effort than others to reach somewhere in life.

I hated my situation as I knew I would have to struggle in life to get what others took for granted. But I didn't let it pull me down in life. The anger and the drive to prove myself gave me the strength to put in much more effort than anyone else.

When kids my age were playing around, I spend that time with books.

The Father at the church noticed my interest in studies and helped me by providing me with more books and guidance.

I didn't have too many friends growing up. Mary was the only exception. I noticed we were in the same class, and she would occasionally come over to ask me some doubts.

Initially, I used to get irritated. But with time, I came to realize that she, too, wanted to work hard and achieve something. Though she was not too intelligent, she made it up with much more effort. Almost as much as me. Over time I came to respect her and was happy to help her in any way I could.

The last two years of my life were the most significant, as my stay at the orphanage was coming to an end. I would have to leave soon. Most children would complete their higher education and would start looking for jobs.

But I knew if I went that path, I would never achieve the life I wanted.

The only alternative was to ensure that I got selected to one of the medical colleges under the merit quota. Every year all the students of the country wrote the competitive exam.

To ensure that even the poor students stood a chance at a better future, the top students were given merit seats. They would be eligible for free college fees, hostel accommodation, and an allowance to meet other expenses.

I knew this was my only way out, and I made sure to put all my efforts into it.

Mary also made the same choice, and we both spend as much time as possible studying.

Finally, when the results came, even I was surprised by the results. My All India Rank was 1000. I had high hopes but never thought it would be this good.

Things got much better from there.

I became a local hero for all the students. No one from our city had scored such a high rank before.

All the training institutions were behind me to endorse their institutes. This was a common occurrence where they paid the top-ranked students to endorse them, saying they used their classes and materials to prepare for the exams.

Even though I was very reluctant at first, the payment they offered was promising, and I needed money for the next steps of my plan.

I made a contract with one of the institutes for a decent amount, and they offered me a part-time job at their institute for teaching their weekend classes.

This was an added source of income for me.

Oh yeah, even though Mary s rank nowhere near mine, she qualified for a Merit seat. She was thrilled as well.

I spent a lot of time deciding the college I wanted to attend. I didn’t want to move too far away from my hometown as I was not too comfortable with that.

I decided to select a college under Karnataka University. From all the colleges under it, I chose ABC College. It was not the top college but within the top 5 under the University.

The main reason I selected it was that it was in my hometown, and the college principal was known to promote performing students irrespective of their backgrounds. Mary was able to join the same college as well.

Finally, today was when we were supposed to report to college to get admitted to college and hostel.

The admission process went smoothly. Mary opted to stay in the college hostel, whereas I decided to stay outside.

Even though I knew it would be an extra expense, I had made up my mind about it long ago.

I knew even though I had got into college, the path to my dreams was just starting. And to achieve them, I would need to continue to work as hard I had done so far, if not more. And to accomplish that, I could not afford any distraction.

I found a 1BHK (1 Bedroom, Hall and Kitchen) apartment at a reasonable price near the college. Even though the facilities were just ok, they met all my requirements.

Finally, I was all set and ready for college.