I love building.
Tashkent → Istanbul → Shanghai · Lumiere Scholar / University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao Tong
I built [working on]
Youth Affairs Agency
1,000+ builders. Home of Orcas. I run challenges and push my limits with other people.
Free for a week · on me
Freshborn. On the left in my mom's hand, fearing the toy tiger under us. Indeed, my mom's hug is still the safest place for me.
Made my Dad cry for the first time, cuz I'm the Asian Champion now ;) I don't have so many pics, but I still remember how I bragged that I greeted the President (because he would make our family listen to his speech every new year).
I don't like this guy. He was hitting on three bestie classmate girls, and ended up with only one (but not for long, because he didn't have a phone during the summer(never, actually, until he turned 19), and had to transfer to another school) [studied at 5 schools].
15 years old. Many things happened. I got a leg trauma, and decided to stop with sports. Got into ITHub Lyceum in Russia with a full scholarship, but my parents went against letting me go.
15, big shift again. I moved out of my parents' to Tashkent and decided to open a retail business with my twin(4 hrs of sleep/day was a blessing for us now). tho my Dad had a couple of hotels and factories, I learned that life should always start with "I did", and the earlier the better. [and I was not close with my dad].
my brother was born [on the same day as my dad's birthday]. I love him the most, and most of his childhood, it was us playing together (sometimes it stole my 5 hours per day, just to play). I understood then how childcare is mentally exhausting.
big shift. we bought a house (tho with a mortgage) with my twin. We're treating it as a basement for clothes and a place to live for workers (we became a family). I started feeling more rightfully confident in my choices, [but also learned that it's not what I loved doing, and sacrificing my studies for that was not worth it]
two years passed, I grew up a lot. Started making big money(but learned that money is not even 10% of what we need to have a fulfilling life), family moved in, and I started focusing on my education much more. I was humbled more than I thought I would.
first time having international friends [at TKS]. I spent my year in this classroom (and ofc my bestie Lera). She was the one who could call me at 1 am, wishing me a happy birthday, and remind me how amazing I am, haha. We also planned to live together once we get into Stanford [she got the interview, but we both got rejected]. I also started loving physics and visiting the Arifov Institute Laboratory.
I invested in admissions over $2k, and was rejected from all of my dream unis [was brutal]. Turkiye Burslari, Stipendium Hungaricum, and UW-Madison were the left choices. I chose to go with Turkiye, since that was the only place I applied for a renewable energy major. I still remember how my dad offered me 50% of his business if I decided to stay [they were worried]. I also found the love of my life. [was mistaken], but spent my two years together in a halal way (she made the journey more meaningful)
We're in Turkiye now. I've found international friends, got to travel alone, was chased by dogs, and gained broader perspectives. I also fought with an Algerian who was against women being educated, and I still think everyone has the right to study. I also believe I was in the wrong room (I couldn't find the same passion I searched for), so I decided to try admissions again and was scammed for $2k from Zuck Academy. Tho this time I got into the University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiaotong (top 3 for engineering)
4 days left, i'm leaving Turkiye. my first ever time being stalked by a girl that I just met(Elif), and when she gifted me the album that she did with my 15 photos collected [she was a good stalker photograph], we cried just two hours before my departure [I didn't know how to react, I was a selfish coward there, who prioritized studies, i could've stayed]. It felt like eating pineapple pizza with a durian. [I hate durian, but I can't stand without pineapple] But we promised to meet once I arrive in Istanbul again.
my best summer. [Sorry for photo spam] I've achieved a lot this summer, CA friends visited Uzbekistan :), made indescribable friends, added two medals to my collection [yes please!], was called two-faced/flirty in a wrong way (they were right, sometimes I would be more kind than I should (but who can measure it?, who can define?) It's us who should be defining it)
worst fall; my visa got delayed three months, my studies got deferred, and sadly, that's the only picture I could find of me smiling. The rest were full of disbelief, contemplation, reflection, and heavy disappointment. I understood then that life can turn its back [no matter how hard you try to fix it]. But I also learned to seize opportunities in unexpected ways. Got an offer from NEWUU as a research assistant at 4x the median Uzb salary, started following my passion and depending less on the institution. So much to write, but another big lesson was learning to adapt.
we're good. We finally started the studies, got a lab research assistantship, and started making $2k in just a month, while being a student (with a brain now). Then treated myself to a MacBook Pro[latest model], a Chinese course at Fudan [$1,5k😭], and started investing in my future house for my future family. But it sucked on the relationship side now. Founded buildcored.com. Met with higgsfield.ai's main manager, multiple employees at FAANG [started interviewing them too, because the chance to get the answer as an interviewer to your questions is much higher than a usual student]
signed my first customer at defex.app. BuildCored is now collaborating with NazarX Uzbekistan (and being funded by the Youth Affairs Agency). It's also my first time getting rejected by a girl [she called the police] [the same girl who confessed first, and kissed me at 1 am under the birch tree]
i'm present now, come again sometime :)