My ninth grade art teacher Elsa Reynolds opens an envelope to a certificate reading “Gold Seal for Kevin Gunnampalli” and my brain rejoices in glory.

This was a mere upgrade to the career, but everything truly started in the eighth grade. My brother earned a new mirrorless camera and gave me our family camera, the Canon T1i. It was 20 years old and very advanced.

I used my skills to enter a statewide competition known as the Visual Arts Scholastic Event (VASE), where I earned the highest prestige: the Gold Seal. This award came with an ego and more on my photography, videography and storytelling abilities. I plastered the photo almost everywhere and made sure everyone knew about it. (This was not my proudest moment at all, I am so sorry to those affected by this.)

I slowly built a passion for engineering by watching countless Mark Rober videos, building my own personal projects, including a robot. However, it never was my main career. I saw myself working in film and getting a simple computer science degree.

I attempted to be the jack of all trades in the media industry, watching complex films for analysis, reading movie scripts and even working with my friend Dhruv Vallepalli to create a film together in my sophomore year. 

My ego inflated to a higher level after getting successful photoshoots. I was referring to my $20 half-baked graduation photos and my trial photoshoots.  I was too ignorant until I did not win VASE the following year. Due to that, I slowly started to dial down the media craze and focus on engineering. 

When I joined an engineering club, they hired me for my media skills, but taught me their engineering tasks. Later, I was told by the founder to step down in the engineering headspace and focus on media entirely. 

After that event, I could not see my photography in a positive light anymore. I slowly started to make excuses for using my skill to myself and worked on the engineering side of things. 

I was trying out the tools on Computer Aided Design (CAD) softwares Fusion360 and Solidworks. I learned the way of using engineering principles like gear ratios, aerodynamic drag coefficients and learning how automotives and race cars work.

Though most people might see me as some sort of person who is good at media skills, I consider myself to be an engineer.  I enjoy learning about physics and aerodynamics, trying to make my own racing league and jumpstart my way into Formula 1.

Suddenly I realized that media and engineering are relatively independent, as there is no overlap in the career pathways. I always knew I could not do both.

But I decided to just pour that time into engineering instead, so I switched the ratios. I went from 40% engineering and 60% media to 70% engineering and 30% media, which is completely fair. 

So, if anyone thinks that they cannot pursue their passion rather than their career pathway: you can do it. Figure out a good mix between your career and your passion, and if they overlap: take the chance.

“I’ve always believed that you should never, ever give up and you should always keep fighting even when there’s only the slightest chance.” – Michael Schumacher, 7x FiA Formula 1 World Champion.  

So, if anyone doubts you on track: do not let that stop you from being a world champion.