Namaste! I’m Harsh Patel, a 24-year-old who’s running the blog, CtrlAltGrow, and the podcast, Within 5 Minutes,
What’s my story?
Ever since childhood, I was privileged to be raised in an environment where everyone was productive and encouraged growth.
I was like a sponge – quick to absorb everything that was thrown at me and would quickly acquire some level of success in everything I tried.
Life dramatically changed in high school. I left all my classes and I even stopped dancing. Yet, those two years of high school were instrumental in changing my life completely.
College Life and COVID
After high school, I joined a college in a small city, Mysore, about 200km from where I grew up(Bangalore). I was a walking alien there as I had no mutual friends and did not have even a single familiar face. While I felt lost and alone at first, when I look back now, I realize that being in that discomfort is what pushed me to grow. I made amazing friends and met some beautiful people who shaped me into what I am. I learned how to live by myself and be there for myself. And the distance somehow made me a lot closer to my family than I was before.
I spent 2 years of my college life sleeping in my bed and living in my head because of COVID-19. It was a hard place to be in because I felt cheated of all the possible experiences I could’ve had at college. Being very active in college, it felt like I lost my chances of being in club experiences and losing out on some very life-changing experiences.
But even in this situation, there was a silver lining. I got the opportunity to dive deeper into my mind and understand my flaws and strengths. And just like that, I planted the seed in my head.
The reason behind starting CtrlAltGrow?
Every choice I’ve made has changed my fate in some way. Some of these choices were right and some of them were wrong. But it led to me this moment.
All my life I chose to go with the flow and eventually, I crashed into the sharp, jagged rocks. What I’ve learned in the last few years has catapulted my life in a new direction. I learned how to be there for myself. I learned how to help myself. You are your therapist and your own friend. You talk to everyone but yourself.
CtrlAltGrow is a diary of sorts to remind me that everything I’m going through has a reason. Everything I’m going through will make sense. There may be days when I feel like I’m lost again.
But reading this and listening to my podcast, will remind me that I am not alone. Life is bigger than what we think it is in our heads. We keep trying to find ourselves but who are we?
Are we someone who needs to be found? Or are we someone we build and create?
There will be moments when you feel lonely, moments where you lose your self-respect, and moments when you break all the rules. And when they do come, you will have to be able to help yourself to get up and move on. Self-help is the best form of help!
What is CtrlAltGrow going to be about?
If you join me in my journey, I hope you find something that resonates with you. Every article in my blog, CtrlAltGrow, will be based on something I see, something I feel, something my friends are going through, or something that I believe the younger generation needs to be conscious of. There will be consistent bonus content in the form of poems, stories, and travel blogs for the people who are interested in knowing more about my life.
I don’t claim to be a therapist for your problems. But I can be the person who can collate complicated thoughts very simply and help you understand how to dig your mind.
How did I bring it to life?
Creating CtrlAltGrow wasn’t a single-day decision. On a cold November night in 2021, My podcast, Within 5 Minutes, was born to life. It was the first piece of the puzzle. I challenged myself to create content consistently for 21 episodes. Only then, would I be able to be credible to both myself and the vision I have. Once I reached that milestone, I decided to expand. I slowly integrated more platforms – Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Prime Music, and Gaana.
I even started releasing all the content on a podcast website. It wasn’t made well, but another piece of the puzzle was finally set on the board. Instagram reels were the third flavour of content but it started burning me out and I decided to stop.
As a final touch, I decided to create a medium account and start reposting the same content over there. The response I got at medium was the push I needed to finally buy this beautiful domain(Ctrl Alt Grow).
While the complete trajectory of this story happened within a single year, it feels like it’s been several years. I only hope for more people to tune in to what I’m creating. Everything I create is a work in progress and I hope to see more people tune in.