Thoughtful Words from Indra No. 5 - School Starts Tomorrow
Jk probably not the kind you're thinking of
The die is cast.
Tomorrow, Sora Schools officially launches. About a year ago, we were all still plotting for the announcement of our startup: contacting press people, writing the announcement article, getting the website ready, making sure we had answers to most of the questions we could anticipate, gearing up for marketing.
As with most startups, there was SO MUCH we didn’t yet know. It’s actually pretty laughable—we were pretty naive back then. But, we learned, and hopefully it was fast enough (in some cases, still too slow). I toured more middle schools than I ever thought I would in my life, sat in front of a lot of fireplaces, listened to parents talk about their students glowingly and students talk about their interests and dreams. In a way, they all wanted the same things: they wanted to have as many opportunities open to them as possible, and they wanted to truly enjoy their education. Unfortunately, many of the people we talked to simply didn’t—that was the crux of the problem that we aimed to solve.
I’ve been waiting to launch so long, I have no idea what to expect after now—I suspect tomorrow will be a similar feeling to what I felt last September. We have staff to support and work with the students, but much of the day will be devoted to our students now—and the rest of my work on top of that. It’s a very heavy weight to bear, the idea that my team is now in charge of the education that could change our students’ very lives. If I had to be completely honest, I don’t know if I’m actually ready. I’ve prepared, I’ve researched, I’ve pumped myself up, but it’s kind of like jumping off a cliff into a deep watering hole for the first time.
A couple of weeks ago, I presented on stage at the Fox Theater for my accelerator’s Demo Day in front of 800 people. It was more people than I have ever spoken in front of in my life. Many, many people seemed to understand the problem we were trying to solve. There were quite a few parents in the audience. They, like many of our prospective customers and even our fans, were trying to determine if what we were proposing could even work. For some, it was a dream they were waiting to have fulfilled. For others, it seemed almost blasphemous, attacking every single preconception and assumption they’ve had about school and how people are educated. For what it’s worth, I think that was actually a good set of reactions: I wouldn’t want to run a company that people, especially prospective customers, heard about and just shrug off, not warranting a strong reaction. Besides, all of our students and staff seem to be hype as hell for Sora to start.
Anyways, those are just some of the thoughts that have been brooding in my mind for the past few weeks. Strangely enough, I’m not really nervous, but pensive. I’m confident we can make this happen, but, as with most things in my life, I think and think and think and think about it.
We’ll see where my head’s at in a couple of weeks.
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General Life Updates
I’m still ATTEMPTING to move apartments, but progress has been slow—random rental history BS is making this process more annoying than it should be
Met up with a friend I haven't seen in like a year last week, and it was fantastic! I think I convinced him to start a Medium blog :)
I’ve eaten oatmeal every morning for like a month. I don’t know if I actually feel any healthier
Thinking of creative things to do on dates is actually much harder than I had imagined
I haven't written a personal blog article in a while, and that’s been bothering me—to be honest, I don’t know what to write about. Truly quality work has always happened with a rush of emotions and ideas, not slow burns and grinding. Anyone want to suggest something for me to write about? :D
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Recent Medium Articles
None this time, I'm afraid 😢
Hopefully there will be one next time. Check out my Medium in case you want to read some of my past work.
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As always, if you ever want to suggest any ideas to me or have any comments about this newsletter or my writing, you can reach me through my Twitter.
Or, if you know me personally, just DM me :)
Cheers,
Indra