“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
There are very few things in life that hurt as much as not being able to help an 11-year-old girl... Particularly, if you feel that you are her only chance...
In Turkey, almost a million students take an exam after primary school to be able to attend a decent secondary school. One exam, two hours, 100 questions, and almost no room for mistake...
I grew up in the slums. The path was super simple for us before this exam: 1-Ace: obtain a chance to have a life... 2-Fail: start working at the age of 11 and forget your dreams...
I had a classmate, Serap... A beautiful mind... Still the fastest problem-solver I've ever seen...
She was definitely going to be successful in the exam...
If she had taken it...
Her father did not let her take the exam, as he wanted her to leave the school and get married to one of his friends... An 11-year-old girl...
She asked me to help her... I could not... I did not know what to do...
What am I going to do with my one precious life? I want to be a man that knows what to do if an 11-year-old child asks for help... I want to help the Seraps of our world...
At my first day at HBS, I felt as if Serap was sitting next to me, even though she was thousands of miles away with her four kids...
She deserved to be at HBS...
Maybe much more than I do...
— Ahmet Orhon