My Eureka moment at Amal
The past few months have been a new way to discover myself everyday, a new way to understand myself as a person and what I’m capable of. Quarantine has given me the opportunity to stay at home with family but also make the most for my personal development. It has been a blessing in disguise as it provided me ample time to look at my life, make a pause and act in a mindful way to whatever I was doing. A similar decision I took of doing a career developmental fellowship art AMAL Academy, one which is truly reaping the benefits as I see myself becoming a better person everyday!
At AMAL, I have learnt a lot. I’ve met new people, listened to innovative and brighter ideas, learnt new things with fellows, been mentored by two amazing people who manage us all together. Each interaction I’ve had with my fellows and managers has influenced the way I think. While I quote so many amazing moments, there’s one that has been my ‘Eureka’ moment at AMAL as it made me think differently of myself and of people around me.
As part of the fellowship, we have 1–1 sessions planned with our managers. I had mine planned few weeks back. I was really nervous since it was the first ever 1–1 with anyone from the AMAL circle and I had to discuss my life goals and other stuff with them. I was too skeptical as to what I wanted to achieve and that level of ambiguity is what made me feel terrible for myself. I wanted to cancel the session last minute, that’s how nauseated I felt discussing about my disoriented life with someone! Anyhow, my scheduled meeting starts with Sir Anis Amir, my Program manger, he’s as calm as he’s in the sessions. He listens to my life rants, my extensive but still ambiguous life plans, I speak on for a while without interruption. I also talk about my personality shortcomings which I see in myself and which I hope can get better magically by a fellowship. Once I’m done, I start getting the feedback. One point at a time and he talks about each one separately. For instance, career goals. “Break them down, make them more actionable, think of yourself, what do you truly want to do, your true calling!?” While I’m listening to all this, there’s a sense of knowing myself already. I had always been too influenced by what people around me told me to do, but Sir made it so easy to understand my true desire. I knew all these things were there somewhere in my head but I had been pushing it all way behind but he simply let an outlet to everything I was thinking.
The way he talked me through all my issues, and didn’t really judge me for being naïve was something very different and it felt nice to be listened to with full attention.
After talking to him, I had a clear sense in knowing what I needed to do and how I could make my ideas more actionable and doable now. We talked not only about the fellowship but also about life, my aspirations, interests, how I could diversify my narrow spectrum of thoughts on so many things. Talking to friends and family has been therapeutic, no doubt about that but talking to someone out of your friends zone who’s eager to listen and talk to you, that hits differently.
I’ve drafted my goals again and everyday I reflect on how I could make myself a better version of who I was before I joined this fellowship. I feel the 1–1 session enabled me to reflect in a very immersive way and has allowed me to approach people who I was shy to speak up to. I’ve had out-of-the-class discussions about so many things with other fellows (equally interesting anecdotes to narrate!), my assistant program manager Ma’am Hira Athar has been a support and she has always catered to all my queries, no matter how stupid they might be, have always been catered.
AMAL has given me so much. The friends and the established network is something that will stick by me forever, but the little moments and learnings I have everyday are something I’ll definitely miss once this fellowship is over. I feel I’ve grown so much as a person already, the little gaps I’ve always felt in my personality have started to fill up and I’m so happy with my decision that I made by joining this fellowship.
