{"id":251,"date":"2026-07-12T07:45:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T12:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/?p=251"},"modified":"2026-07-12T08:15:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T13:15:36","slug":"how-picking-cucumbers-changed-the-trajectory-of-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/2026\/07\/12\/how-picking-cucumbers-changed-the-trajectory-of-my-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How Picking Cucumbers Changed the Trajectory of My Life"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"684\" src=\"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/greenhouse-rows-plants-with-flowers-1024x684.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-258\" srcset=\"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/greenhouse-rows-plants-with-flowers-1024x684.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/greenhouse-rows-plants-with-flowers-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/greenhouse-rows-plants-with-flowers-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/greenhouse-rows-plants-with-flowers-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/greenhouse-rows-plants-with-flowers-2048x1367.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/greenhouse-rows-plants-with-flowers-660x441.jpg 660w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">While reviewing materials from the MIT Professional Education program I completed in 2023\u20132024, I came across an assignment from the Leadership and Innovation course:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\"><em><strong>Identify a pivotal moment that changed the trajectory of your life.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">As I traced one decision backward to the one before it, I eventually found myself in a cucumber field in Soviet Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">The exercise reminded me that life&#8217;s biggest turning points rarely look important while we&#8217;re living them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\">I wrote the full story on Medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:16px\"><strong>Read the full story here \u2192<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@victoria.kravets\/how-picking-cucumbers-changed-the-trajectory-of-my-life-d6a806abb980?sk=c05925f085a7ace8bef6e55f7b58cd47\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@victoria.kravets\/how-picking-cucumbers-changed-the-trajectory-of-my-life-d6a806abb980?sk=c05925f085a7ace8bef6e55f7b58cd47\">How Picking Cucumbers Changed the Trajectory of My Life<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While reviewing materials from the MIT Professional Education program I completed in 2023\u20132024, I came across an assignment from the Leadership and Innovation course: Identify a pivotal moment that changed the trajectory of your life. As I traced one decision backward to the one before it, I eventually found myself in a cucumber field in\u2026 <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/2026\/07\/12\/how-picking-cucumbers-changed-the-trajectory-of-my-life\/\">Read More: How Picking Cucumbers Changed the Trajectory of My Life &raquo;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationships"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoria.engineering\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}