F I R S T F L I G H T
You are about to do something extraordinary.
Whether you are the one boarding the plane, or the one letting go, you are stepping into a moment that will shape everything that follows. You have prepared as much as anyone could. And still, somewhere underneath the applications, the shortlists, the acceptance letters, a quieter question keeps surfacing:
who do I want to be?
Expectation brought you here
Maybe the choice of college, country, or major has already been shaped by voices that arrived long before you did. Family expectations. Societal norms. The unspoken assumption that certain fields are what success looks like. Or maybe you are the parent watching your child prepare for a decision they may be making for reasons you both have not fully examined yet.
Uncertainty brought you here
Maybe you are being asked to make ten-year decisions at seventeen, and the truth is you do not yet know who you are. Maybe you are the parent watching your child at a crossroads, wanting to help without projecting your own answers onto their life. Somewhere in this, both of you know the same thing: the ambition is real, but the clarity is not there yet.
Love brought you here
Maybe you want to make your parents proud without losing yourself in the process. Maybe you have poured your whole heart into raising this child, and now you are being asked to trust that everything you have given them is enough. This is love, and it is not simple, and it is exactly why the answers must be honest.
Whatever brought you here, you do not have to figure this out alone.
The questions you are sitting withFor the student:
How do I stay true to who I am when everything around me is new, exciting, and pulling me in different directions?
How do I choose the right college, the right major, and the right path, when I am not sure I know myself yet?
How do I honor my parents without living the life they imagined instead of the one that is actually mine?
For the parent:
How do I know my child will stay grounded when I am not there to guide them?
How do I make sure they carry our values with them, without weighing them down with expectations they cannot bear?
How do I stay connected without hovering, and how do I know when they actually need help?
The roots I held onto gave me wings. The ones I let go of cost me years to find again.
My story
I left home at 14. Alone, without my parents or my brother.
I went to live with my aunt and uncle in rural Maryland. They had four kids, all older than me. I was the youngest in the house, learning to navigate a new country, a new culture, and a new version of myself, all at the same time.
School was where I first learned what I was capable of. I ranked first or second throughout, driven by equal parts ambition and the quiet weight of everything my parents had given up getting me there. I skipped a grade, got into Georgia Tech at 16, graduated summa cum laude. I went to Stanford for my Masters. Worked at Google. Graduated from Boston College Law School. Then built my legal practice in some of the best law firms in the US.
But what shaped me just as much as the academics was everything that happened around them. At Georgia Tech I was a founding member of the Cricket Club, because no matter how far I was from home, cricket was home. I joined the India Club, played flag football, learned to carry multiple identities without losing the one that mattered most. I worked part-time throughout to help pay for my education. At Stanford I balanced coursework with research. At Boston College Law School I competed in the Negotiation Competition and was active in the South Asian Law Society, staying rooted even as I was building something entirely new.
Here is what almost no one knew at the time.
At seventeen, I did not know what I actually wanted to do with my life. I chose engineering because I was good at math and science. I chose law because it looked like the next prestigious step after Stanford. Every major decision I made abroad was made from the outside in.
From the inside, there were signs from the very beginning that I was on the wrong path. I wanted to quit law school after the first semester. I failed the bar exam the first time. My admin later told me I did not have the killer instinct. But I pushed through. I did not want to let anyone down.
I spent decades finding my way back to the question I should have asked at seventeen. That is a long time to spend building the wrong life for the right reasons.
I now have two young children of my own. I think about this every day. How to give them the same roots and the same wings, in equal measure. Not because I am afraid they will follow the wrong path, but because I want them to know, at seventeen, what took me forty-two years to understand.
The version of yourself that comes back from a life abroad, tested, stretched, and still whole, is not something any classroom produces on its own. But without the right foundation, it does not happen by accident either.
That is what First Flight is for.
How I workThe work always begins in the same place. Understanding who this young person actually is, what they genuinely want, and how to build a life that reflects both. First Flight is not a college counselling service. It is not a substitute for the excellent college advisors, admissions consultants, or academic mentors your child may already work with. It is the work that has been missing alongside them. The clarity, the identity work, and the ongoing support that decides whether the whole adventure lives up to its promise.
Before your child chooses a country, a college, or a major, we do the work of understanding who they are and what they genuinely want. Not what looks impressive. Not what makes the family proud. Not what their cousin did. What is actually theirs. Every decision that follows is built on that foundation.
CLARITY
Being away from home for the first time is exhilarating and destabilizing in equal measure. Through regular check-ins across the college years, I help students stay connected to who they are as the world pulls them in every direction, and offer a steady adult voice that is not their parent, not their peer, and not their professor.
GROUNDING
College is the foundation of a career, an identity, and a life. I help students think about their path with purpose, choosing experiences that build toward something real, not just a CV that looks good on paper. Someone in their corner who has walked this road, and knows both the world they came from and the world they are learning to belong to.
A CO-PILOT
The three above are not standalone services. They are the three stages of what I call The Flight Plan: the personal, evolving strategy we build together for your child’s entire journey abroad. It is not a template. It is not a curriculum. It is a living document of who they are, what they are building toward, and how to protect both from getting lost along the way.
THE FLIGHT PLAN
The Flight Manual
A DOWNLOADABLE RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS AND FAMILIES
The guide I wish had existed when my parents put me on a plane at 14. A comprehensive resource of honest questions, guided conversations, and practical tools that every family should work through together before the flight. Designed to surface what usually stays unsaid, and to give both student and parent a starting point that is theirs.
What I offerWe begin with a Discovery Call to understand where you are, what you are trying to build, and what kind of support would actually serve your family. From there, we choose the next step together.
The Ground Check
ONE SESSION, STUDENT AND PARENT
A focused 90-minute session for a family standing at a specific decision point. College. Country. Major. A career direction. A moment of doubt. We work through the question at hand together, with both student and parent at the table, and leave the session with real clarity on the next step
The Co-pilot
ONGOING COACHING ENGAGEMENT
A personalized, evolving relationship across the college years or a defined phase. Regular sessions with the student, occasional touch points with the parent, and the steady, honest presence of an adult whose only agenda is helping the student stay clear about who they are becoming.
The Ground Support
A DEDICATED SESSION FOR PARENTS
A single 90-minute session for parents alone. To process the letting go, align on expectations, and understand how to stay connected without adding to the pressure your child is already carrying. Because how you hold this transition matters as much as how they do.
If any of this resonates, for you, for your child, or for both of you, I would love to talk. A free discovery call, just an honest conversation about where you are and what would actually help.