Finding Flow

The way I’ve come to view life recently is like a river. Which, I know is cliche, but really does make sense.

I mean, think about it. If you’re in a river, you can definitely move upstream, but the chances of reaching your destination are much slimmer with a much more difficult path to get there.

However, if you move with the flow of the river and use the current to your advantage, reaching your destination is not only easier to attain, but more fun to travel.

The only problem with life is that, most times, we have no idea if we’re moving with or against the current.

For the first few years of college, I had this exact problem. Sure, I was doing a lot of things, meeting a lot of people, but I never really knew if they were the right things. The right people.

When I first left my house for this semester, I didn’t bring my soccer gear. In fact, I remember deliberately looking at it as I walked out my front door and thinking “yea, I won’t need that.”

Which hurt. Soccer was a huge part of my childhood and ever since I never made it to my dream school, I’d been in kind of a rut in terms of motivation.

But coming to California changed all of that. Within just two weeks of getting here, I became inspired to chase the impossible again. To dream beyond what anyone, including myself, had ever imagined for me.

To dream of playing in the World Cup in 2026.

And, I know that I’m still worlds away from attaining this dream, but I finally feel like I’m chasing again. Like I’m moving with the current.

Sure, we have obligations — jobs to work, families to support, houses to maintain — but I truly believe that dream chasing not only makes these obligations easier, but it actually doesn’t make them seem like obligations at all.

It is possible to do what you love, have fun, and earn an income. It is possible to dream something and have that become a reality.

I know that my blogs to date have made it seem like California was just one big exploration, but it was actually a lot of work too.

Since coming here, ShowNxt has grown to a team of 16 undergraduate students at Northeastern. We now have close to 1,100 users testing our beta, 29 universities signed on, 7 different Boston schools deploying the app in 2021, and 5 official non-profit partners. I live and breathe ShowNxt, but I made it a mission not to let that consume me while I was over here — to allow myself to adventure and always find time to grind, no matter where I was.

I’ve held meetings from the parking lot of a rafting agency, the front porch of a cabin in Yosemite, and many backseats of cars. ShowNxt is my life, but my life is not ShowNxt. And that’s what I think is so amazing about entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship isn’t about creating the next billion-dollar company. It’s about creating a reality based on dreams — and that’s something that I think Northeastern does a phenomenal job of emphasizing.

Whether it was pushing me out of my comfort zone with rejection therapy, teaching me about the inner workings of a company’s Corporate Social Responsibility, or allowing me to understand the finances beyond operating a startup, Northeastern not only encouraged me to dream but actually helped those dreams start to come true.

The friends I’ve made here are like none other I’ve made in my college experience. The journeys I’ve been on I likely won’t embark on again for years. The motivation I’ve found couldn’t have been found anywhere else.

And this has all been during COVID-19. Imagine what the future holds when the world finally re enters a reality without a pandemic.

So, thank you to everyone that’s been a part of this experience. It truly has been one of a kind. I can’t wait to see you down the river.