My Personal Statement
Every morning of my childhood began the same: holding my grandfather’s hand and walking to the village tea stall. It was the meeting place for senior citizens, and I watched the respect they showed my grandfather, a freedom fighter of the 1971 Liberation War. That respect extended to me. “Be like your grandfather, and make us proud,” they said. Too shy to reply, I lowered my head and nodded.
One day, I asked my grandmother about the meaning of my name. She explained that before I was born, my grandfather had chosen two names: Mukti for a girl and Shadin for a boy, both meaning freedom. To him, freedom was sacred. He had crossed into India for training, fought for independence, and lost friends in battle. My name carried his legacy, and from childhood I felt the weight of living up to it, of being “a good boy” for my family and village.
Yet I was not always strong academically. I loved painting and badminton more than studying. I spent hours capturing emotions of nature on paper or preparing for tournaments. Those activities brought me joy, but my grades fell. When my headmaster called my parents to discuss my performance, it was the first time I truly felt the burden of pride, my family’s and my own.
The turning point came in sixth grade. My class teacher suddenly announced, “Shadin, you will be class captain this year.” The entire class stared at me in surprise. Captains were usually chosen from the top students. At first, I thought only of the responsibility: captains sat in the front row and answered teachers’ questions first. That challenge forced me to prepare thoroughly. Step by step, I became disciplined, and by the end of the year, I earned first place in my class of over two hundred students. Discipline, more than hard work, transformed me.
My efforts were soon rewarded with the greatest gift of my childhood: a new desktop computer. I didn’t even know how to connect the monitor, but my curiosity pushed me forward. As a child I often broke toys to see their electronics inside; now I could explore an entire digital world. Within months I taught myself Photoshop and Microsoft Word. Later, I saved five months of pocket money to buy two kilometers of optic fiber cable, becoming the first person in my village with internet access. That moment marked the start of a new journey: I began teaching myself HTML, then CSS, and step by step, web development.
After high school, I moved 100 kilometers away to a prestigious government school in the city. There I faced new challenges but also more opportunities. I overcame all the challenges and became founding president of the Robotics Club and vice president of the Art Club. I balanced academics with leadership, volunteered in my community, and even took army winter training as a cadet in the Bangladesh National Cadet Corps. To gain more experience after graduation, I did internships and full-time jobs in web development and IoT. Each challenge shaped my ambitions further.
Looking back, I see two forces guiding me: curiosity and responsibility. Curiosity led me to art, badminton, computers, robotics, and technology. Responsibility, rooted in my name, my grandfather’s legacy, and my family’s pride, pushed me to discipline myself and rise to challenges.
I now feel ready for greater challenges, those that will shape my future and allow me to serve my country. I once promised my grandfather I would contribute to society until my last breath. Today, that promise guides my ambition: to build a career combining innovation, service, and leadership, so that one day my grandfather can see in me the fulfillment of his lifelong dream, freedom turned into progress
