Chapter 01 · Thailand · 2020—2022
Learning to ask for more.
The academic challenge I chose, the leadership role others trusted me with, and the confidence that followed.
I wanted the harder class, so I learned a year of it alone.
I did not begin sixth form planning to take Further Mathematics. That changed once the structure and creativity of A-level Mathematics clicked. I wanted to go further, but joining the course late meant catching an entire year.
Over the summer, I independently worked through the Year 1 Further Mathematics curriculum and earned a place in the class for my final year. The result mattered — but the more important lesson was discovering that a gap in preparation was something I could close deliberately.
The outcome
I graduated with A*A*AA and a top-one-percent global score. More importantly, mathematics stopped feeling like a subject I happened to be good at and became the language I wanted to keep using.
Leadership before the title
Represent people clearly. Carry the responsibility quietly.
As Head Boy, I represented the student body, led weekly assemblies, organised major events and worked between students and faculty. It was my first experience of leadership as translation: listening carefully, making a position clear and understanding that visibility creates responsibility.
Balancing the role alongside an ambitious academic programme taught me how to prepare, communicate and stay composed before I had formal language for any of those skills.
“Self-belief became much more useful once it was attached to preparation.”
Then the classroom gave way to something less predictable.
After sixth form came two years of National Service in Singapore — a very different environment that tested the same appetite for responsibility under much higher stakes.
Continue to military service