Ring Ceremony
CTYA’s Blog has started a new Feature on Fridays, Thulirkal. Thulirkal meaning bud reflects the young Tamil youth we will be featuring. These youth are the buds of our community, and are growing into to strong, achieving young men and women! Each week we will feature a Tamil youth of the week. For more information or to suggest a youth to feature, please feel free to email us at blogs@ctya.org!
This week we have interviewed a young man, for who even the sky isn’t the limit, Kabilan Daniel Thurairajah!
Kabilan has entered the AXE Space Academy for a chance to actually go to space! The two Canadians with the most votes will travel to Florida to received real astronaut space training ,from there, they can compete in AASA’s Global space Camp for a chance to actually go to space!
Remember to vote for Kabilan at https://www2.axeapollo.com/en_CA/5031/kabilan-thuairajah
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CTYA Blog Team: Thank you Kabilan for sitting down with us today. So, let’s get warmed up. Ok, now don’t think, just say what first comes to mind. 1, 2, 3…
Favourite Tamil Food? Kabilan: Chicken Buryani
Early Bird or Night Hawk? Kabilan: Night hawk – need my sleep
Ideal vacation destination? Kabilan: Maldives, to relax, Japan to explore
If you were invisible, where would you go? Kabilan: Get on a plane to go anywhere
Harry Potter, cool or not? Kabilan: Harry Potter is cool, never read the books just watched the movies.
CTYA Blog Team: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Kabilan: My legal name is Kabilan Thurairajah, but I’ve been called Daniel ever since I was little. I’m currently in my final year of the Aerospace Engineering program at Ryerson University and have a big dream of becoming an astronaut one day!
CTYA Blog Team: When asked what they want to be when they grow up, a lot of youngsters say they want to be an astronaut, for you, that may soon be a reality, how do you feel about this opportunity?
Kabilan: When I first heard about this competition I was quite skeptical that I’d have a chance of even making it to the top 10. But I was proven otherwise within a week of entering! I’m very excited about this opportunity and having the chance of going into space and seeing the world from a point of view that only a handful of people have ever seen. I was so excited that I actually couldn’t sleep for the first few nights, I kept thinking of how it would be to win this competition. As of right now I’m overwhelmed and humbled by the support I’ve been getting from friends, family and the Tamil community around the world. I really could not have come this far without their full support!
CTYA Blog Team: What’s your secret for success? What lead you to where you are right now?
Kabilan: I really don’t want to give a cliché answer and say follow your dreams and it will come true; life doesn’t always work that way. I guess my secret would be to surround yourself with like-minded and driven people; this will naturally push you to be like them. Be stubborn about your aspirations, don’t let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do. The more farfetched your dream is, the further you must step outside your comfort zone. Do your research and follow up on others that accomplished similar goals and see how they did it. Working smarter is always better then working harder. I believe my passion and persistence led to this point in my life. I’m given one life so I might as well take risks and make it worthwhile.
CTYA Blog Team: Where do you want to be 5 years from now?
Kabilan: Hopefully, I would be working as an engineer in the aerospace industry with a business of my own on the side. I wouldn’t mind pursuing a PhD if I’m not working, but I guess I have to see where life takes me.
CTYA Blog Team: If you could say a few words to your younger self, what would you say?
Kabilan: Boy, you’re in for a surprise.
CTYA Blog Team: Finish the sentence. “To me, Tamil youth are..”
Kabilan: …the greatest asset to the Tamil community. The youth have been given the chance to fulfill the vision our previous generation had for us. The Tamil youth are on stage, showcasing what Tamil people are capable to the whole wide world! We as Tamil youth have the opportunity show the intellect, creativity and resilience of our people.
CTYA Blog Team: Anything else you’d like to add?
Kabilan: I would like to talk about two of my most important achievements/lessons in life. The first one being receiving an MVP on my high school swim team, which I never thought I’d receive. I wasn’t awarded MVP because I was the fastest swimmer on the team, I was given MVP because I was the most improved swimmer and was able to morale others to improve and help our team grow. I remember when I first joined the team, I had zero experience in competitive swimming and frankly I was horrible at it.
I realized to at least reach the level of my team mates I would have to practice harder and more often than they did. I ended up going to practice in the mornings, before school even started. There would be days I’d smell like chlorine and go to class, but if this is what it took me to improve I was willing to do it. I may have never gone to championship or anything of the sort but this experience taught me that I had to push my limits in order to improve myself and when you believe that you can do something no force on earth can stop you.
My second achievement was receiving a research position from a professor. To some people this may not seem like a big deal but to me it was. I wasn’t always a straight A student. I had many slumps during my days in school. I was considered “slow” in elementary school and had to be in special groups at school so I could catch up to the rest of the kids. Getting tutored outside of school was what got me through regular school. It was a similar story in high school; I didn’t have the best work ethic and developed test anxiety due to my lack of confidence in myself. To make things worse, I went through personal issues that went downhill near the end of high school. It was a struggle just to get accepted into a university. I knew I had to change the way I conducted myself to even have a chance of achieving my childhood dream of being an astronaut. Being the only child to my parents I couldn’t let them down, I’m all they had. I decided to change my life around.
I realized in my last year of high school and as I entered university that I just learned differently than how the school system taught. In university, I began teaching myself how to learn effectively in ways that best suited me and I invested enormous amounts of time and effort into perfecting it. Even though I had slumps here and there I was able to push through and get good grades. I impressed a professor with a project I had worked on with a peer last semester and was offered a personal reference letter and a research position that I can start any time! I learned that it doesn’t matter how your past was or what struggles you’re facing now. The words that others have spoken against or the negative thoughts you may have had about yourself doesn’t matter. When you put your heart and soul into what you believe in, you create passion. This is the force that will get you through obstacles, will give you that extra bit of strength when you can’t give no more and will give you a reason to get up each time life knocks you down.
Photo Credits: Senthamil Stefi
Kabilan is currently in 3rd place, remember to vote for Kabilan at https://www2.axeapollo.com/en_CA/5031/kabilan-thuairajah! The two Canadians with the most votes will travel to Florida to received real astronaut space training ,from there, they can compete in AASA’s Global space Camp for a chance to actually go to space! Remember to VOTE!
For more information or to suggest a youth to feature, please feel free to email us at blogs@ctya.org! Catch up with us next Friday where we’ll be bringing you another Talented Tamil youth story!
