Determination Amidst Hopelessness

Everyone seeks success in life. It is easier for you to find someone who wishes to succeed in life than someone who doesn't want to. Nonetheless, success is not a given. Success befriends only the ones who are consistent and determined. Below is a story of one such person...

Maria was born to two teachers in the Polish city of Warsaw. Due to her family's patriotic involvement in the revolution, they had subsequently lost their property which condemned them to a life of relative poverty. A bright student, she would enrol herself in the University of Paris. She focussed so much on her studies that she sometimes forgot to eat. To make ends meet, she studied in the mornings and tutored students in the evenings. Soon, she began working in the French scientific organisation.

A lot of challenges were to come her way. She was denied the required equipment at work for her scientific purposes, she was refused an academic position because she was a woman, and she was not treated well in France because she was a foreigner. To add to these miseries, she was born in the wrong place at the wrong time - she was a woman. Women, during those times, were not allowed to work alongside men, let alone as scientists. You may have guessed who is being spoken about.

More challenges came her way as her husband, friend and life partner Pierre died when he fell under a horse carriage. But her determination overpowered her problems. She became the first woman faculty member at the École Normale Supérieure, France. Her scientific achievements were so important that she was awarded two Nobel prizes - in 1903 in Physics and in 1911 in Chemistry. Yes, the individual being referred to Marie Curie.

Although we see her as a scientist when we read about her or learn about her in school. It is important to see her also as a woman scientist. During a day and age when women faced numerous social challenges, Marie Curie strived to achieve the impossible. She became the first woman to win not one but two Nobel Prizes. She sacrificed her life for the betterment of mankind - when she died due to radiation poisoning. As someone who battled with depression throughout her life, Marie never let her mental illness take hold of her. Instead she went on to become one of the greatest scientists of all time.

If her story tells us something, its this - A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.