It’s Coming Together

Danial Naqvi
Aug 31, 2018 · 3 min read

At the start of this internship, I thought I was patient, calm and collected. Now, after a month of slogging away; I can see that it’s coming together.

St Pancras Intl Station (June 2018)

‘I want my time with you’


This image, aptly placed next to a clock, represents time put in and not understanding the result.

For weeks, I’ve been following instructions; hoping that it would all end sooner rather than later.

Now, after four weeks of grinding, acting patient; it’s all coming together.

While I can’t divulge what exactly I’m working on, it has tested my patience.

To the point where I tried automation and nearly paid an awful cost.

I have been acting as an essential cog in a system that is just lifting off the ground.

I’m sad I won’t be able to see the capabilities of the finished product as I finish my internship in two weeks; but I’m sure whoever takes over will find a more efficient way to do it — I just hope they never tell about it.

I must say, it’s been an extreme test. Watching everyone around me work on the bread and butter while I churned away on a project that no-one had any sense about.

Fun to be part of innovation but it showed me that no good product has easy beginnings.

The team around me, my manager and all the rest have been integral to making sure I didn’t screw up.

I think this quote above speaks to a product wanting time from an individual.

A business.

An entity with no way of communicating its desires.

Because then you, yes you, have to make that time to spend with it.

For it to be successful, you need to allot that time.

I believe that thinking of it like this and then translating it to person-person makes it almost more ‘millennial’.

Everyone around you wants to be entrepreneur. They want to be better.

But I don’t want to be an entrepreneur per se.

I just want to make my impact and have my voice; to contribute to the global sustainability mission of both humans and environment, the rest is futile.

A big salary, fancy cars, house — it’s not really that important.

I only have two material gains that, if I find myself in the position where it’s commercially viable, I’ll pursue out of dreaming and desire and real purpose. Otherwise, I’ll be content with reaching my pyramid apex.

Time, more and more every day, is compressed by our phones.

We can communicate with others through the Internet over meeting in public.

It’s possible to do that now, and many are taking advantage; some are taking it to extremes. That’s our future and trying to stop it is like trying to stop climate change (I won’t burrow down that rabbit hole).

I’d love to meet all the people that I have said I’d meet with.

The list is endless, and that’s not to brag, rather to realise that the idea of scheduling is actually more complicated now.

People are busier. People have objectives. People want to do things before they have to go back to their universities or obligations.

Even now, I’m wondering when I’ll meet people. Some I’ll meet at university. Some I’ll meet during university term period.

I have to focus on my dissertation and QMGS as well as my internship.

I do like to come home after work, write the blog and look after those other obligations.

So I want my time with all those people.

I prioritise my mental health, I prioritise my time with myself.

I prioritise my time with all these tasks that I signed up to.

And maybe I’ve made the wrong decision, but I won’t know till much later.

Picking one path and being all in is much better than being caught in two minds, letting people down and disrupting their schedule.

These obligations want their time with me. They are time-sensitive.

I’m trying to take care of my physical health where I can.

I want to spend more time with my parents.

There’s a lot going on.

I want my time with you too.

But with work showing a shining light at the end of the tunnel, the completion of the first stage of launch for QMGS yesterday and my overall good spirits.

It’s coming together.

Danial Naqvi

Written by

BA (Hons) QMUL Human Geography | MSc Science, Technology and Society Candidate

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