2011. Chemistry class.
A student raised his hand.
We were struggling with a particularly complex organic chemistry chapter—organic conversions. To solve those problems, you had to understand a whole chain of concepts: properties, reactions, processes, conditions, and how one compound could be transformed into another.
It felt overwhelming.
The student finally asked the question many of us were thinking:
“This is so complex. How do you expect us to understand all of this?”
Our teacher looked at us and gave an answer that I have carried with me ever since.
He said something along the lines of:
“No matter how hungry you are, you can only eat one bite at a time.”
Of course, he said it in Nepali, which somehow made it even funnier—and more impactful. But this rough English translation captures the message.
I didn’t know it then, but that sentence would become one of my life’s mantras.
Whenever I face a difficult situation, a complicated project, or a major change, I remind myself:
No matter how hungry I am, I can only eat one bite at a time.
My First Everest
Years later, I wanted to move to Australia.
Today, it might not sound like an impossible thing. But the version of me living in Nepal at that time considered it an Everest.
I had a well-paying job. I was working on-site, in a remote village, with 24/7 availability and limited resources. I couldn’t simply quit my job and spend months preparing for the move.
I had to keep earning.
I had to support myself.
I had to think about my family.
And then there were the questions:
Which university should I apply to?
How does the visa process work?
What documents do I need?
How much money will I need?
Where will I live?
What about the English-language test?
How do I manage all of this while working full-time?
If I looked at the entire problem at once, it was overwhelming.
An Everest indeed.
But I remembered what my teacher had taught me.
I couldn’t eat the whole plate. I could only take one bite at a time.
So I started small.
I began by taking 10–20 minutes from my daily schedule to understand the visa application process.
Then I contacted friends in Australia and started gathering information.
I had studied in an English-medium school, so I wasn’t particularly worried about the language test. But I still spent time understanding the different tests, what they assessed, and what they expected.
I narrowed down the universities.
I arranged accommodation.
I learned the application process.
I contacted a consultancy to help me with the university application.
And I started saving money so my family wouldn’t have to spend a fortune to send me abroad.
One bite at a time, the impossible became manageable.
One step after another, the path became clearer.
Eventually, I got my visa.
And I moved to Australia.
I had climbed my first Everest.
Not in one giant leap.
One bite at a time.
Another Everest
That same mantra helped me finish my studies and eventually land a professional job as a geologist with a multinational company.
And then life presented me with another Everest.
I fell in love with my wife, who was living in Germany.
Moving to Germany was, surprisingly, one of the simplest decisions of my life.
The difficult part wasn’t deciding whether I wanted to go.
It was figuring out how to make it happen.
There was a new country.
A new visa.
A new language.
A new life.
And, once again, I had very little time.
At that stage, I was working around 12 hours a day on a roster that alternated between day and night shifts.
If you’re wondering why I was working that much, the answer was simple:
Money.
I wanted to earn as much as I could so I could help my family get out of debt.
I’m still working on that.
The biggest challenge wasn’t that I was afraid of moving to another country. It was finding the time and energy to make the move possible when my life had been reduced to something like:
Work. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
But the old lesson came back.
I didn’t have to solve everything today.
I just had to take the next bite.
My wife helped me immensely through this process, and I owe her a huge thank you for standing beside me through another Everest.
Eventually, I made it to Germany.
Starting Again
Arriving in Germany didn’t mean the journey was over.
In many ways, it meant starting from scratch.
New country.
New language.
New stage of life.
And without German, my professional prospects were extremely limited.
It took me roughly two years to finally land a professional geologist role in Munich.
Two years can sound like a long time.
But when you’re living through it, you’re not thinking about the entire two years.
You’re thinking about the next step.
The next class.
The next exam.
The next conversation.
The next application.
The next person to contact.
The next opportunity.
Again, I took my Everest and broke it down into bite-sized pieces.
The First Bite Wasn’t My Career
Interestingly, my first step in Germany wasn’t finding a job.
It was stopping.
After years of working alternate day and night shifts, eating whatever I could manage, and living apart from my wife for five years, I was depleted—physically, mentally, and emotionally.
So I gave myself six months.
Six months to relax.
Six months to recharge.
Six months to reconnect with my wife.
And, most importantly, six months without constantly worrying about my career.
I slept 10–12 hours.
I ate like a king.
I spent as much time as possible with my wife.
We travelled.
We enjoyed each other’s company.
For six months, I deliberately put the career planning aside.
Looking back, that was one of the best decisions I made.
Sometimes the next bite isn’t moving forward.
Sometimes the next bite is resting.
Then Came German
After those six months, I was ready for the next bite.
German.
And German is not exactly a language that politely introduces itself to you.
I enjoy learning, but German was tough.
So I joined a language course.
Then I found a mini-job.
The money wasn’t great, but that job turned out to be valuable in ways I hadn’t anticipated.
It gave me an opportunity to interact with people, listen to German, speak German, make mistakes in German, and learn German in the real world.
In some ways, that job taught me as much German as the language course did.
I passed B1.
And immediately signed up for B2.
I passed B2 with flying colors.
Another bite.
Done.
Learning the Landscape
While learning the language, I started reaching out to geologists around Munich.
I wanted to understand the industry.
I wanted to know what employers were looking for.
I wanted to understand where my experience and qualifications fit.
And I started hearing a familiar answer:
C1 German.
And often:
A driving licence.
So that became the next bite.
I worked toward getting my driving licence while continuing to build my network and understand the industry.
Then something unexpected happened.
I connected with someone who would eventually help me get my foot in the door.
We talked.
I shared my story.
I explained my qualifications and experience.
And I was given an opportunity to prove myself through a paid internship.
I took it.
I learned.
I worked.
I made mistakes.
I improved.
And I proved that I could learn.
Eventually, that internship turned into a full-time role as a geologist in Munich.
Another Everest.
Another journey.
Another series of bites.
The Plate Is Still Full
There are still countless things I want to learn.
Professionally.
Personally.
There are still goals I haven’t achieved.
Problems I haven’t solved.
Mountains I haven’t climbed.
And sometimes, when I look at everything ahead of me, it can still feel overwhelming.
But then I remember that chemistry classroom in 2011.
I remember a confused student asking how we were supposed to understand something so complicated.
And I remember my teacher’s answer.
“No matter how hungry you are, you can only eat one bite at a time.”
I’ve spent more than a decade learning what those words really mean.
They don’t mean you shouldn’t dream big.
They don’t mean you shouldn’t be ambitious.
They don’t mean you should lower your expectations.
Quite the opposite.
Dream of the Everest.
Respect the Everest.
Prepare for the Everest.
But don’t try to climb it in one jump.
Break it down.
Take the next step.
Then the next.
And the next.
Sometimes that step will be learning.
Sometimes it will be working.
Sometimes it will be asking for help.
Sometimes it will be saving money.
Sometimes it will be failing.
Sometimes it will be resting.
And sometimes it will simply be getting up tomorrow and trying again.
The important thing is to keep taking bites.
Because no matter how hungry you are,
you can only eat one bite at a time.
