There’s this Chinese saying my dad loves: “The slow bird has to fly early.” He says it all the time, like it’s his personal slogan. That’s the kind of energy I was raised on. So, when I started high school, I already had a quiet panic in my chest:
“I am the slow bird.” And honestly? I kind of am.

I’ve never been the smartest kid in the room. I’m not a mathlete. I’ve never won a science fair. I play the violin, but only because I’ve been doing it for ten years and it’s too late to quit now. I tried tennis. My coach was like, “Maybe try… another sport.” I joined every club. Mostly just to figure out what I was actually good at.

I didn’t really find out. Except… one thing stuck. Trash. Yeah. Trash. Like actual garbage.

I joined the Environmental Club freshman year and basically became the unofficial Trash King of our town. Every Saturday I’d be out there picking up bottles, wrappers, and random weird stuff by the lake while everyone else was at robotics or SAT prep. At first, it felt good. Then it felt boring. Then it felt like maybe I should quit.

But I didn’t. And then something weird happened.

I applied to a Youth Environmental Advisory Council at the state level. Thought it was a long shot. I got in. Suddenly, I was in meetings every Thursday with state officials talking about real environmental projects.

One week, we toured a wastewater treatment plant. The manager was super proud. He told us the plant used a process called “AO” that had been around for 30 years.

Everyone nodded. But I was like… wait. Thirty years?? Is that still… good? But I didn’t ask. He looked really proud.

So, I did something else. I emailed a senior engineer at Veolia, one of the biggest water tech companies in the world. He actually wrote back. He said: “Yeah, we’re working on better tech. The new A2O process can clean water up to drinking standards.”

That blew my mind.

I started reading papers and watching lectures. Suddenly I was knee-deep in wastewater science, and I loved it. No one saw that coming. Including me.

For the next three summers, I interned at environmental labs. I worked with researchers, co-authored three published papers, and wrote about environmental justice and water systems.

I applied to MIT. They said yes.

So yeah. That slow bird thing? Maybe it works. But here’s what actually helped. If you’re in High School, Read This Carefully:

- GPA is king. Not everything, but foundational. You can’t mess this up. Protect it like it’s your favorite hoodie.

- Don’t do everything. Do one or two things really well. I didn’t plan it, but I got stuck with trash. And eventually… trash took me to places.

- Start early. Way earlier than you think.

Not for college but for you. Because when you’re deep into something for real, admissions officers can tell. And more importantly - so can you.

I’m not a genius. I’m just a Try-Hard. Honestly, that’s what got me in.

So if you’re a slow bird?
Good news: You’ve still got wings.