“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
I'll let you in on a secret: I often pretend I'm a Bollywood star.
You may see me walking down the halls of Aldrich to my next class. Little do you know that I'm actually strutting down a runway in a music video; wind in my hair and camera lights in my face. At meetings, my pen becomes a microphone, and I serenade my team, prepared for an encore. And in the gym, I sneak into an empty dance studio and burst into song and dance, my biggest fan being the wide-eyed, giggling girl on the other side of the mirror.
Life is all about how you choose to perceive it. Lounging at home on a summer afternoon, I turn to my father and ask: "What were you like when you were my age?" I expect him to tell me how responsible he was, moonlighting between his 30-hour residency shifts to send extra money back home to his family in Mumbai. Instead, he pulls out an old photograph of himself in a laser-blue swimsuit, flexing his biceps on a beach in Hawaii. "I was a muscle man," he chuckles.
I want to inspire people to boldly experience the world in their own unique ways. As a mother, I will cultivate little rock stars who will feel invincible in their own alter egos, be they mad scientists or head chefs. As a manager, I will empower my team members to explore and embrace their own creative genius. And, finally, I will reinvent the norms around my own Bollywood persona by doing the forbidden – I will actually kiss the hero, and I will do so passionately and for the world to see!
You may see me walking down the halls of Aldrich to my next class. Little do you know that I'm actually strutting down a runway in a music video; wind in my hair and camera lights in my face. At meetings, my pen becomes a microphone, and I serenade my team, prepared for an encore. And in the gym, I sneak into an empty dance studio and burst into song and dance, my biggest fan being the wide-eyed, giggling girl on the other side of the mirror.
Life is all about how you choose to perceive it. Lounging at home on a summer afternoon, I turn to my father and ask: "What were you like when you were my age?" I expect him to tell me how responsible he was, moonlighting between his 30-hour residency shifts to send extra money back home to his family in Mumbai. Instead, he pulls out an old photograph of himself in a laser-blue swimsuit, flexing his biceps on a beach in Hawaii. "I was a muscle man," he chuckles.
I want to inspire people to boldly experience the world in their own unique ways. As a mother, I will cultivate little rock stars who will feel invincible in their own alter egos, be they mad scientists or head chefs. As a manager, I will empower my team members to explore and embrace their own creative genius. And, finally, I will reinvent the norms around my own Bollywood persona by doing the forbidden – I will actually kiss the hero, and I will do so passionately and for the world to see!
— Minal Mehta