Imagining A Better World

And this brings me to my third post of the day. The past two weeks have been a blur. Too many things going on in my life, and I even missed an interview. Heh, speak of less than adequate time management skills. But then again, the tough gets going every time, not just when the going gets tough. This is something that I must bear in mind.

Anyway, the topic of now is my fantastic final project experience up to today. In a few hours, we will be submitting our entry for the Imagine Cup. Interestingly, we have come a long way ever since we realized we needed clarity, and that we needed to identify the real problems in rural villages. Even more interestingly, we realize that we're just at the beginning of a journey, a journey that can impact the lives of millions of people disconnected from the modern world. A journey that will challenge our assumptions and beliefs so ingrained in everyone of us. I came into this class hoping to build a great team, execute a great idea and build a great business. But seriously, I think conquering the world is not such a big deal. People are doing it everyday. Saving the world is the bigger deal here. :P

Yet again, this motivation to save the world is constrained by many limitations. For instance, how do you execute an idea in a village you have never been to before? And will you sustain it? Will you go all out to ensure that it really benefits the people you want to help? Some people doubt my intentions. Do you really want to save the world and do something meaningful? To this, my answer has always been - We all need a start somewhere. This is a great place to start and we can at least do something that is of use to people. These benefits may not materialize today, but we can definitely hope that they will somehow be of great use and benefit to the people we want to impact - sometime in the near future.

Indeed, it's the future we are talking about, and it's the future that we live for.

To this end, I must say that the class has been fiercely supportive of our endeavour. The Googlewave by Joshua got everyone chipping in two cents' worth and ideas to achieve the millennium development goals using technology. Personally, CS3216 classmates have been very forthcoming in sharing ideas, and offering to link us up with NGOs. This supportive culture is what differentiates CS3216 from other classes in NUS. This is the spirit that we have come to embrace, and this is the reason why people will succeed.

And finally, I will like to talk a little about my team. This is the dream team. We are a bunch of diverse people who have come together with vastly different backgrounds. I am really impressed and honoured to be working with such motivated people who can see the big picture, but yet can also point out the minutest details.

Indeed, there is a reason why we are in this together. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses, and how well we cope with this as a team, will determine how far we go in our endeavour. And I have great faith that we will make something out of this idea in the end, and bring the world to the countless people living in the rural villages without Internet - impacting minds and mindsets, and bring about great change where it matters.