Love Transcends All - Debajyoti Rath

"Always striving to be ahead of the competition, I found myself collecting accolades in education and extra curriculars. Like majority of engineering graduates, I took the route to join a multinational IT firm, only to realize the detestation. I decided to own my life and my career. Studied for GMAT and got admitted into University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to study MBA. Soon enough the pressure to land a job and recoup the loan kicked in. I did struggle, but then my mother’s words “you got this” worked magically for me. I immersed hard work and landed a job with my then dream company, Deloitte.

The most enticing part of my life is my soon to be wife, Kari Crawford. There are relationships and then there’s this relationship! Can the rhetoric of “crossing seven seas” be any truer? When I decided to come to the States from a small town in India for my masters, little did I know that I would find my better half. Likewise, Kari had no clue what storm she was going to face, coming from a small country town in Florida. But, love happens when you least expect it! A white girl making Indian food, a brown guy learning American colloquialisms makes it a match-up like no other. Our cultures are different for sure! But, right now, we are working on rising above it. 

No, we don't eat each other's native food for every meal, not every vlog we make on YouTube is a hit, our dogs aren't perfect, our traditions are opposite poles, but these imperfections keep things real between us. And as an answer to all the questions that society puts before us, I would simply like to say that, race, skin color, political affiliations, education accrued, and job titles shouldn't be counted as obstacles, where there is love. Love transcends all! - Debajyoti Rath.