Growth happens outside the comfort zone
"I realized that failure doesn't define me — my response to it does."
At 13, I left a traditional high school in Lexington, Massachusetts to train internationally in Germany — alone, without family nearby, in a country where I didn't speak the language. My days became a cycle of online coursework, hours of physical drills, and old matches replaying in my mind. It taught me to navigate the unfamiliar, budget my time to the minute, and find strength in hardship.
At one of the most important tournaments of my career, a spot on the national team was mine to lose — two games up, seemingly secured. A fleeting distraction cost me the match, and with it, five years of work. My coach and my parents cried alongside me. I went back to training with renewed resolve. Today I'm rated 2500 — a level I once thought was out of reach.