Success Isn’t a Destination. It’s Every Day You Choose Not to Give Up.

Starting Before I Feel Ready

A month ago, on the 1st of October 2026, I officially started my PhD.

I’ve wanted to write this post for a while, but I kept waiting for the ‘right moment’. Maybe after a paper got accepted, or after a big milestone. Then I realised that’s exactly the mindset I’ve spent the last few years unlearning. There’s no perfect moment where you finally ‘arrive’. There’s just today, and whether you show up for it.

So here I am, one month in, writing it anyway.

Where It All Started

I’m from Goa, India. If you’ve ever been, you’ll know it as a place of sunshine, the sea and a slower pace of life. It’s home, and it always will be.

I studied for my Bachelor of Computer Applications at St Xaviers College Mapusa. Then I spent a few years working as a software engineer, building web and mobile apps for businesses and learning on the job. On paper, I had a stable path laid out in front of me.

But there was a quiet voice that kept asking: what else could you become?

In September 2022, I packed my life into a couple of suitcases and moved to the UK to study for an MSc in Computing at the University of Huddersfield.

The First Chapter: Just Keep Going

I won’t pretend it was easy. Moving across the world means starting from zero in ways nobody really prepares you for. You’re in a new culture with new weather (so much new weather), new ways of doing things, and nobody who knows your story yet. Some days you feel brave. Other days you feel very, very far from home.

What got me through wasn’t some big moment of clarity. It was small, unglamorous decisions. I went to the lecture. I finished the assignment. I said yes to the opportunity even when I wasn’t sure I was ready.

During my MSc I did a placement at the Centre for Precision Technologies. There I helped build ATMAS, a test management and asset scheduling system that the research group still uses every day. I graduated in 2024 with a Distinction. My classmates also gave me a peer commendation, which meant more to me than I can easily put into words.

A Name on a Door

There’s a photo I took in 2025 that I still look at often. It’s just a red door with two names on it, and one of them is mine.

It might seem small. But for someone who arrived not knowing a single person, seeing my name printed on a door felt like the UK was quietly saying: you belong here.

That year I was working as a Research Assistant on a UKRI Knowledge Transfer Partnership. I was building machine learning models and dashboards that helped real organisations make better decisions. I was learning how research and industry can work together, and how much I love living in the space between them.

A year later came a different door and a longer list of names, many of them with ‘Dr’ in front. Mine is at the bottom, for now. I’m okay with that. Every name on that board started at the bottom of something.

Standing Up and Sharing the Work

Something I never imagined when I landed in the UK was standing in front of a room and talking about my own work, and having people actually listen.

Speaking at the AI Ready Yorkshire event was one of those moments. My hands were clasped together partly out of habit and, honestly, partly to keep them still. But I was there, sharing what we’d built, and that’s what counts.

Then, on the 3rd of September 2026, I stood in front of a screen with my name on it as Research Assistant and Platform Developer. I gave a live demonstration of PAIR at the AI Innovation Showcase during ICMIAM 2026. PAIR is an AI-enabled decision support platform we developed in co-creation with Together Housing Group. Working alongside Dr Shamaila Iram and Professor Philip Brown on that project has taught me so much about turning research into something that actually helps people.

Four years earlier, I was a new student trying to work out the bus routes.

Four Years, 2,771 Photos

Not all growth happens at a desk.

My phone recently showed me this map of every place I’ve taken a photo since September 2022. I’ve been from the Scottish Highlands to Edinburgh and Glasgow, across to Northern Ireland, through Wales, all over the North of England and down to London. That’s 2,771 photos in all.

Each little glowing patch is a trip, a friendship, a weekend I said yes to, or a moment when I stopped and thought: I can’t believe I’m here. This country has become a second home, and every one of those places is part of the person I am now.

Where I Am Today

Today, I’m one month into a full-time PhD at the University of Huddersfield. I’m researching explainable artificial intelligence and multi-criteria decision support for complex decision-making. Alongside that, I’m working part-time as a researcher on AI for housing and sustainability.

Some days are full of energy and ideas. Others are mostly coffee, reading papers and wondering whether I understand anything at all. (I’m told this is completely normal for a PhD. I’m choosing to believe it.)

What I’ve Learned About Success

If you’d asked me in Goa what success looked like, I’d probably have described a destination. A title, a degree, a place I’d finally reach. Now I see it differently.

Success is what you make it. It isn’t a destination. It’s every day you choose not to give up.

It rarely looks dramatic. Most of the time it looks like this:

• The morning you get up and go in, even though you’re tired and homesick.

• The email you send, even though you’re scared of the reply.

• The rejected paper you open again, rework and resubmit.

• The conversation that turns into a collaboration, and the small ‘yes’ that changes the next four years of your life.

None of the photos in this post show a finish line. They show doors, rooms, screens and places. They’re all just evidence of someone who kept showing up.

To Anyone Just Starting Out

If you’re an international student who has just landed, or someone sitting at home wondering whether you’re ‘good enough’ to take the leap, I want you to know this. You don’t need to have it all figured out. I certainly didn’t, and I still don’t.

You just need to keep going, one ordinary, brave day at a time.

To my family back home in Goa, my friends, my colleagues and supervisors, and everyone who has opened a door for me along the way: thank you. Your names may not be on the door, but they’re written all over this journey.

Here’s to the next chapter, and to every day we choose not to give up.

— Gulger