“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
I hear an ambulance siren at 2 AM, and I think, "Someone's family is having a horrible day." I leave yet another lecture on poverty reduction, and I think, "There's so much on the world's to-do list for this short lifetime." I approach the world as one vast network of connections, the human worldwide web. And if that's the case, if we are all indeed connected, we need to worry about each other, console and improve each other.

My parents embodied this devout selflessness as I grew up with club feet, rolling in and out of hospitals for operations, cast changes and physical therapy. Because of their dogged love, today, I can't recall an ounce of pain or embarrassment from my handicap; all I have to show from it are scars of nerve and resilience.

And so I'll pay this forward. My life is and always will be about making someone else's safer, easier, simpler. I believe that through the power of technology, we can minimize the ambulance sirens, eradicate global poverty and nourish the human web. Here, standing at the frontier of endless possibilities, I will not divert from this plan. I cannot.

If we don't take care of each other, who will?

— Nina Bilimoria