Hello!
So, let me start by introducing myself. My name is Teja Swaroop, and I’m primarily a Tech Youtuber. You can find my Channel Tech Raj on YouTube. I upload videos about Cyber Security and related topics. I also run a website, and I’m an App developer.
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Basically, I’m a computer enthusiast, and I love playing with computers. I’m 18 years old.
I started my YouTube channel when I’m 14. It’s been a hell of a journey since then! So, I’m here to share my story with you (Though it’s a small story since I’m just 18).
Right,
where to start?
Let’s start with my childhood. I used to be that shy, average kid who can never initiate a conversation with strangers, never ranked top in my class, but just an average kid who used to score just average marks.
I’m not from an economically bright family, as my father is a normal employee working in a private company. We are a “middle-class”, yet happy family. My parents always loved and cared for each other (they loved me more :D).
Everything was going normal in life, and I’m just a happy kid, with really no big ambitions, interests, passion, etc.
One night, I heard the news. It was terrifying news. But, I didn’t really get terrified, because I was a kid, and couldn’t really understand what it meant. The news is that my mother is sick. I already knew that my mother was sick from more than a month, but only that night I came to know that she is really sick, like, really “bad” sick. That night, my dad and mom told me that they were going Hyderabad because mom needs some medical treatment. They asked me to stay at my uncle’s home, as I had to attend school.
I shifted to my uncle’s home and attended school while my mother and father stayed in Hyderabad where my mother got treated daily at a famous hospital. My dad used to travel between Guntur(my native) and Hyderabad(where my mom is being treated) frequently. Whenever I had left, I joined my dad to Hyderabad to visit my Mother who is staying at her brother’s house. I made many trips to Hyderabad to visit my Mother, and I really didn’t feel that anything is wrong. My mother seemed happy in Hyderabad(she is probably acting before me) though she lost so much weight and hair. Every day, she was taken to the hospital by my uncle and father. One day, when I was leaving from Hyderabad to Guntur, my dad, me and my mom had a conversation. My mom told me that she will probably be coming to Guntur in the next week. I still don’t know if she really meant it, or she was just saying this to make me happy. Soon after the conversation ended, my dad and I left the railway station to catch our train to Guntur. I still remember the vision of my mother walking weakly until the door, and waving her hand saying “bye” to me. She is always smiling. We got into our train “Chennai Express”. We were about to reach Guntur in an hour, and my dad got a call from my mom’s brother. He looked very tensed after taking the call. I asked him what happened, and he said, “mom is not well”. That is the first time ever, I saw my dad so tensed and terrified. It was midnight by the time we reached Guntur, and the next morning I came to know my mom has passed away the last night. Then, I came to know my mom had Cancer. I didn’t even know what it meant.
Okay, so it was really bad. Really really bad times. And I just don’t want to write anything more about it and make you feel emotional. But somehow, I moved on.
At that time, I was in 8th grade. I studied at Loyola Public School. We had the subject of a computer. And there was a chapter about Visual Basic. I read that chapter before even it was taught in the class, and, for the first time ever I was interested in something!
It was all magical to me, I started writing in Visual Basic, and it, even more, increased my interest.
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And wait, did I forget to mention? I had a Samsung laptop at that time which my dad purchased for me. My dad still reminds me that it was my mom who asked him to purchase me the laptop at the time she was sick.
So anyway, it just happened. I got interested in Programming, just the idea of making computers do our tasks by writing code that they understand. Awesome, isn’t it?
I watched a lot of YouTube videos about hacking, programming, computer tricks, etc., from my Samsung laptop. And I loved it! I just wanted to try it myself. Create a YouTube channel and upload videos. What kind of videos? Computer tricks videos!
It kept on going, and in the next year, we had Java in our Syllabus (I’m an ICSE student). And my interest in programming turned into a passion. Kudos to my school, it was the best! I learned many basic things there without which I wouldn’t have been what I am now. I gave my boards the next year, and I passed with 80%.
This was the time I made the channel “Tech Raj” (though, earlier I made lots of other channels as well).
I was always told that scoring good marks in plus1 and plus2 is a very critical part of life because only then I can get into a good university to pursue Engineering. I believed the same initially. But later, I started realizing. Plus 1 and Plus 2 (which is called Intermediate in our state) are two years of utmost stress and pressure. I had to attend classes every day from literally 7 am to 8 pm!
And all this, to study Math, Physics, and Chemistry. My favorite subject Computers is not even there! I hated it! I hated my Intermediate education. But again, all this effort is made only to get admission in a Computer Science course at a good university!
I somehow passed my Intermediate Boards, but failed to qualify for JEE Mains!
Wow! what a loser I am, right?
Like seriously, I am good in programming and computers, and I also want to make it my career, so why should I also excel in Math, Physics, and Chemistry? I really didn’t know the answer to this. I asked a lot of people, and none of them knew the answer to this.
Anyways, I failed to crack JEE Mains, but I got into a pretty good private university with my Intermediate Board marks.
After some months in my university life, I realized that computers are a perfect application of Math, physics, and chemistry together! If you are really a computer lover, you must know how they are built and how they work, and in order for that, you must know some basic concepts of math, physics, and chemistry. I never knew this! I finally found the answer to my question!
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So now, what about my fellow college mates who cracked JEE and JEE Advanced with an exceptional score? It is obvious that they excel in Math, Physics, and Chemistry. So that means, they must be pretty good at computers, they must be better than me, right? I found out that they are not. They can’t apply the concepts that they learned, to figure out computers! It’s not their fault, it is the fault of the Education System.
At this point,
I learned two things:
- If you are really passionate about something, you will always find a way to get better at it. No matter what, you will learn and gradually excel. Whereas, if you just learn things blindly only to score marks, you are developing nothing! You are not building a passion, you are not developing your skills, all you are doing is just trying to increase your “number”. This “number” can be useful to get into a good university or to get a good job, but trust me, this “number” doesn’t play any role in being “successful”, your passion does.
-
There is no stop to “learning”. It is infinite. No matter how much you learn, there are always new things that you can learn, and excel. You just can’t stop if you want to be really successful! No matter if you learn these things by your own, or through a teacher, the only thing that matters is, are you good enough to learn new things? Are you a good learner? Are you always ready to learn new things that fit your passion? If yes, then chances are, you will be successful.
So, this is my never-ending story to achieve Success.
Right now, I’m just working on my passion, and learning new things that I need to learn! I mean, how can I not learn new things? and how can you not learn new things? Be it computers or any other field, just don’t stop learning!
In the coming days, I might be a little closer to Success. So is you! Who knows?
As I said, I think it’s a never-ending journey.
Best of luck!
Teja Swaroop.
If you like my story, you can feel free to connect with me on Instagram
