Nearly a decade ago, I found myself immersed in David Silver's deep reinforcement learning lectures on YouTube (hard to believe how quickly time passes). Among the many technical concepts, one phrase stood out and quietly etched itself into my memory: Markov State.

Its simple yet profound definition struck a chord: the future depends only on the present state and not on the past. That moment felt magical. My eyes lit up. Something about it resonated deeply with my lived experience.

As I reflected, my mind wandered through old memories - both triumphs and failures. A common thread ran through them: I was often either stuck in regret or resting in complacency, fixated too much on the past. That fixation had, at times, paralyzed me. The Markov property offered a liberating counterpoint: the present moment alone shapes the probabilities of the future.

This insight reminded me of another moment that left a lasting impression - watching a film in which a line from the Bhagavad Gita was quoted:

यं हि न व्यथयन्त्येते पुरुषं पुरुषर्षभ |
समदुःखसुखं धीरं सोऽमृतत्वाय कल्पते || 2.15 ||
"O Arjun, noblest among men, that person who is not disturbed by happiness and distress and remains steady in both becomes eligible for liberation."

Though spoken in a vastly different context, the verse touched me in a similar way. It spoke of equanimity - of staying centered regardless of life's emotional swings. To me, this echoed the essence of the Markov State: anchoring yourself in the present, unmoved by the turbulence of the past.

And so, here I am today, striving - in the deepest sense - to be a Markov State. To focus on doing the next right thing for my family, my country, and the world. To contribute, in whatever small way I can, toward leaving the world better than I found it.

"The future is conditionally independent of the past given the present." That's the technical articulation of the Markov property. But looked at through a human lens, it becomes something powerful.

It reminds us that no matter the baggage we carry - regrets, achievements, mistakes - it is our present choices that shape the possibilities ahead. Of course, life isn't a perfect Markov process. Our "states" are often colored by complex histories. But as a mental model, it's empowering. It shifts our focus from helplessness to agency, from nostalgia or guilt to responsibility. It reminds us: we are not prisoners of our past, but stewards of our future - through the actions we choose in this very moment.