India-born NASA engineer thanks her parents for their struggles and her success

Parents strive hard to offer a lifestyle for their children that they never could receive -- be it with respect to toys or things kids demand to help them study and progress to better heights. 

And this only gets more challenging if you’re a migrant parent trying to earn your living in a different state or nation where costs constantly keep on piling up and compromises are made at every corner. 

However, despite this, parents don’t give up and help the child flourish in life, and give them the career they desire. And while browsing LinkedIn I stumbled across a post by one Akshita Kapasiawala who recently got appointed at NASA as a system engineer. In the post, she shared the hardships her parents had to go through to bring her to this stage in life and how she’s immensely grateful for it.  

Facebook: Akshita K

She said in the post, “I came to America 25 years ago from India with my parents. They came to this foreign land with just the clothes on their back and one goal: provide a better life for their children. I grew up watching my dad work 12-15 hours a day to single-handedly support a family of five.”

She shared how her parents tried to save money wherever they could to make ends meet, “We never went on family vacations, camping, movies, or even a weekend getaway. If we ever wanted something, we were told “No, it’s too expensive” or “Maybe when it’s on sale.” My mom was a conservative stay-at-home mom who couldn’t speak English and had no friends or family to help her with three children. They both struggled, and they struggled a lot.”

However, she said that all this struggle made her appreciate what she was gifted with and dream bigger, “This struggle taught me something. It taught me to appreciate what little we have in life and to never be afraid to dream big. It taught me to take risks. It taught me to be self-motivating. It taught me to be a fighter. Most importantly, it taught me to never allow failure to define who I am.”

She added, “Five years ago, I would have laughed at the thought of ever getting a job at NASA. A month ago, I received an offer from Marshall Space Flight Center for an engineer position. In that moment I realized that dreams do come true. Dream hard, and dream big. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.”

Reading her story, most of us would be able to relate to the hardships our parents took to get us where we are. And this was also seen by people who read her post.

Akshita K has completed her Bachelors in Science (Mechanical Engineering) From Rutgert’s University. She has also worked at Naval Surface Warfare Centre as a Junior System’s Modeler. She's also interned at India’s Larsen and Toubro as well as received NDT Level 2 Training at Modi Institute of Non-Destructive Testing. 

At NASA she is responsible for NASA’s Human Landing System which involves working on software extensive work as well as planning and maintenance of the system.

As said by Khalil Gibran, “Parents are like bows, children, like arrows. The more the bow bends and stretches, the farther the arrow flies.  I fly, not because I am special, but because they stretched for me.”

(Source: India Times)