What I Was “Made For”

You can never give thanks enough, even if religious isn’t your jam

10 min readJul 29, 2023

I’m trying to reach everyone and anyone here so bear this in mind. This is largely inspired by Greta Gerwig’s Barbie (movie) and Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For (song).

If you’re an educator and care about student’s voice, here I am. If you’re a mentor and you’ve helped me along the way, hey. If you’re a student like me and figuring out how to do stuff with impact, nice to meet you! If you’re following my journey right now, I’m stunned by the market forces I’m being exposed to and appreciate it.

My name is Aneka. It’s been some years and I’m already sick of the world we’re creating right now. Here are some CTAs for big executives, small creators, and people who give a damn.

Read it as you please, I tried to keep it organized. I recognize that you’re busy but it’s intentionally a little lengthier for my females in STEM.

I like being blunt and getting to the point.

So here it is. I’m a high schooler working as if I’m an adult and my emotional maturity hasn’t kept pace.

As a woman now, I look up to different people. I look down on others, but not because they’re below me.

It’s because I know a little bit more about what Billie Eilish talks about in the song What Was I Made For?

Who am I and why should you stay here? I’m a high schooler who girlbosses a little too hard sometimes and it knocks me down.

Writing = a way to get back up [queue Part of Me by Katy Perry. Not even kidding, play it rn]

What I’ve been thinking about

I think what a lot of people wonder about when they first see someone in media is what are they doing right?

Let me tell you a few quick, actionable things I’m doing:

playing to my strengths through rapid content creation
using social serendipity for the best
sparking conversation where it lacks
reaching out to people I care about
documenting my lows and highs through writing so older me sees growth. note: my best friend and I opened letters from elementary together and best. moment. ever.

My mission as of late

For years now, I’ve been working in climate technology. Analyzing problems, gathering data, conferencing (ask me where in the comments. I have a lot to say about that), and making intelligent and driven friends globally. Of all ages (that’s the most exciting part to me — I used to be scared of making friends with kids but now look at me!)

Anyway, here it is.

Use my platform for good
1.1 Talk to people that influenced me early on
1.2 Connect with my institutional communities (school, Villars, Masason)
1.3 Understand how bureaucracy works locally instead of globally (my assumption is that it’s easier to jump some rungs in the ladder when you have connections)
1.4 Enjoying and understanding good music, individually from the artist [“personal worth is not what a person is worth” (lyric), Night Agent (show), Hidden Agendas (book)]
Stay committed to my projects without burning out
2.1 Sharing what I learn about this topic (so far it seems that talking to people about it excites me)
Share what I’m acting on and learning along the way
3.1 Breaking the norms and stereotypes of the “right kind of person” for each platform
3.2 Finding what feels comfortable
3.3 Rapidly marketing what I’m doing and thinking of the logistics

If you’re still reading, you should be… because I haven’t said what I’m doing.

Here it is in plain-text but subject to change.

Innovating in my own (pending Trademark? 😌) stream that I’m calling BSTEM. All too often, people know B or STEM and that can’t be the case anymore. Not now, where it used to “feel like” 30 degrees Celsius and now that’s a good day.

2. Making rapid iterations on my project without revealing too much. I’d be annoyed by this too if you’re someone who knows me, but as my Toronto friends at Private AI have taught me, my global reach does not provide me with all the necessary safeguards to really do this as publically as I would want to.

3. #buildinginpublic in my community especially. I’ve seen what “wins” over here in my town and am not happy with how this underplays some of the intelligent engineers and people who live here. If we keep shielding ourselves from competition in innovation, we’re not moving fast enough — let me tell you that. I’ve read and analyzed 100s of OvO Sound lyrics to understand the beauty of what happens in 40s circle.

I want the zipper to that bag, if you know what I mean 👀

4. Using my personality to my advantage. With COVID, I might’ve been shaded and nervous and anxious and all those dark concepts that are not that far from my understanding anymore…but the raw truth is that my best aspects are still with me. Why not play to them? Someone wise once told me that as much as you might want to explore, sometimes it’s just time for action. I’m in that chapter right now. Rapid communication + wise words surrounding me is best state I could be in.

5. Staying authentic to my values and writing style.

Quite frankly, I don’t care if I reach even a fraction of my 150k dream goal.

I enjoy music to another level, I appreciate my Airpods Pro + new iPhone (watch out for an article on my thoughts of exposing to tech at a young age, parents) and I can connect with my neighbours. Like whaaaat?! Who is she?

My Wise Girlie Experience

Please pay close attention to your queues. This is NOT A JOKE.

If you take one thing away from this, don’t you dare leave out your core needs.

If there are those of you who aren’t immediately aware of this, here it is:

Your health. Now yeah there’s reproductive, mental, physical, and a million other categories that we like to make into little social media folders, so ask me more on twitter if you want or read izzygrandic’s article on that (don’t support X but what can you do now. my handle is @Aneka Mulgund and if this gets traction please don’t directly ping me unless we’ve talked before. i’m growing but bits at a time, understand that.)
Your body gives you signs. As you grow up, this will become more and more evident but this does not mean anything about you. This is an uncomfortable stage and it can get real dark real fast, but surprisingly bright and beautiful too. One of my besties has a weather theory and I love that.
Your happiness. Yeah, we’re going there. What is happiness? I’m sitting completely straight-faced listening to Eilish on repeat + enjoying a nice candle and this has been my best moment all day. If you get glimpses of your version of that, step… into it. Not away.
I’m not saying not to focus on school and say “whatever, I’ll focus later” (been there, done that!) but rather, stimulate your learning with other mediums.
That was a really fancy way of saying [ play games, find yourself in whatever is comfortable right now, and spend time with interesting ppl (cuz who thinks cool still has a definition?) ]
Personally, I’m looking forward to miles of MarioKart on both new and old Nintendo Eric Bailey, thoughts on that? (Drake but substitute Wii “I said I missed the old Drake, girl don’t tempt me” mans is lyrically intelligent. If you can’t tell I❤6ix and gaming)

3. Not your strengths, but your weaknesses. Trust me. My dad used to tell me that I should play to my strengths but never I understood that since it conflicted with what I thought about learning through doing. But now, I see how to take my characteristics to my advantage. I’m emotional? Sure. But now, I can lead and I can have intellectual conversations while getting people motivated. BOOOOOM.

ps. Medium you should add those little arrow shortcuts we enjoy in Notion.

Life Advice

Always subject to change and experiences but here we go.

Talk to people and don’t be nervous. A lot of people your age are in your shoes and needs someone’s behaviour to echo or get inspiration from. For younger people especially, if teenagers saw more inspiration, they’d probably start listening more and swearing less.
Take privacy (check out Private AI) as seriously as you would if you had some weird people joining your Minecraft server. Though there are trustworthy methods of authentication and security, you gotta understand that before you start playing around with it, not before. I have a great mentor for this, so thanks if you’re reading this.

If you’re an emotional person:

don’t be ashamed of that. i used to get made fun of because i cried too much but that just means you’re good at letting your emotions out. it gets easier along the way of bouncing back from that!
try different ways of entertainment, be it cooking with your grandma (check my YouTube for biryani recipe) or talking to new people anonymously on Discord. of course, make sure your identity is protected and you’re being safe. internet trails are stronger than paper! I’ll link a post I have on my mind on the topic of privacy.

If you’re a stoic person:

surround yourself with people you think align with your values in a slight form. not based on superficial things but rather deeper. i’ve seen this firsthand work wonders.
make a strong morning routine. interesting people spend their precious time intentionally, and that’s something I carry with me through all of life’s twists and turns
make use of newsletter’s and books from Ryan Holiday. changes my life marginally but daily, not even lying Daily Stoic.

Billie Eilish lyric implications to me as an individual, in a big world

note: listen to Chance the Rapper for this feeling, he has amazing flow and messages/history hidden in his lyrics. i analyzed Bad Idea for an english project and that was one of the highlights of corona schooling.

Something I weighed for: 50,000 important people in one place where you’re supposed to derive enormous value but you’re instead caught with anxiety attacks and huge swtich-ups in

I’m sad again: emotions are not moods.

I used to know but I’m not sure now: I think I experienced this in reverse. I wanted to be showbiz when I was young but quickly learnt that talent like me wasn’t getting enough love (or respect quite frankly, thanks Christina Collins for teaching me this)

Think I forgot how to be happy

Something I’m not, but something I can be: #dissociation might be a common word in mental health, but we don’t get to see how this can benefit us too. Ponder that!

Whether You Know Me or Not, This Was For You.

Please give it some thought — and more importantly — action. Your wellbeing is not something you should take lightly, not at any state. It’ll only get you down! So do what works for you, friend. Always wanted to write and publish that line.

Questions on my stress counter rn as an emotional intellectual:

What makes good culture for diverse workplaces?
How do we encourage authenticity but shield people from parts they don’t need to see?
How can we effectively teach biases? I know I’m using this visualization I saw the other day on the bird (I cannot stand the idea of no bird, ru kidding!)
How do we collectively agree that there are some things that are going to hit a woman harder than a man, accept that as a fact, and move on?
How do we step into our respective races (I have an interesting definition of that word from someone I trust btw), for the world’s advantage? Two avenues I’m exploring are using my Latin friends — quite honestly, family actually — and my Indian roots for good. Ping me about that.

Final Thoughts

You can’t always act on your thoughts and sometimes it’s easier to make piece with universally known truths of lives and laws (looking at you mr. Edward A. Murphy Jr.)

What you can do it read dense, knowledge-packed books from really smart people. My current reading stack is going crazyyy so if you want that, lmk on a social and I’ll try.

The best recs RN is anything by Ray Dalio, even his YT content (free and valuable) or This Changes Everything. Been sitting on my reading list forevaaaaa, thanks piano teacher!

At the foundation lies your sanity. Your being. Your conciousness. All those abstract that seem so abstract till you watch and listen to art and writing/other forms of expression that speak to you.

Don’t let anyone take that away from you because that is you! And you can do great things (sometimes we should listen to those cringey whatsapp morning videos you get forwarded from a distant relative ;)

You’re definitely in my headspace somewhere and you’re welcome here anytime! ❤ #barbie4L #feminismwithoutitsstupidconnotations #knowyourselfdrizzy

Let’s COMMENTTTT! What were your fav characters and was the last part Inside Out vibes or what?

Also, strangely GTA things. Lmk if you relate:

Sitting on your mom’s yoga meditation firm pillow thing (Buddhists have a name for that but blanking and on another note, watch a Buddhist before you sleep if you want :)

Using IKEA Today to your advantage and letting your mood dictate your workflow. IKEA is just so vibes with its vast variety but personal feel + the comfort of seeing a warehouse + its robots. If you know you know lol. Had the privilege of meeting people there Web Summit and it was pretty cool.

Last of foot notes but keep the convo going here, whether it’s for a loved one who doesn’t love themselves enough, a younger sibling or relative growing up in 2023, or the feeling of finally piecing together bits and pieces of the world.

Maybe you guys will be in my book. Maybe Drake will sign it. @drakerelated trust I’ll be in the AR world you’ve created so thoughtfully.

Big Mans but Bigger Plans, always! ps. check out my Gen. AI OVO x AM88 Idea below

— Aneka Mulgund

logo courtesy of my newsletter if you see it, on Mailchimp, sometime else. AIR stands for Aneka’s Insider Report.