Welcome back to Flashback Files — the podcast for students, recent grads, and young professionals who want to reflect on how early experiences shape confidence, identity, and leadership.

Today I’m joined by Eesha, a third-year Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour student at McMaster University. Eesha has:

• 16+ years of training and teaching in North Indian classical dance

• 9+ years in Toastmasters youth gavel clubs and leadership

• A published poetry collection from her “COVID project”

In this conversation we cover:

• How one hour a week of dance over 16 years built real discipline and cultural identity

• What Toastmasters actually is, and how it changed her relationship with the stage

• Practical ways to read a room and connect with an audience

• The hard reality of the high school → university transition (and why she didn’t admit she was struggling at the time)

• Building routines from a low point — starting with the smallest possible step

• “Psychological inertia,” and why tackling the easiest problem first can change everything

• Navigating family expectations as a psych / neuro student in a family of engineers and lawyers

• Why she’s a 7/10 confident in her career path — and why that’s enough for now

• The pressure of social media “success stories” vs building a meaningful, grounded life

If you’re presenting at school, trying to show up at work, or quietly wondering if you “belong” in your program, Eesha’s story offers a very real, very relatable perspective from someone who’s still in the middle of the journey.