Taking flight for a life long journey

If someone would ask me for a place to experience every emotion, listen to various life stories, learn multiple skills, meet extremely talented people and be inspired every day, I would ask them to join Amal academy. From online courses to fun in-person sessions, from project works to mock interviews and presentations, every experience has been amazing.

I have always thought about how our education system fails to catch the interest and attention of students. We study all the theoretical material yet we are unable to understand the concepts properly because there is no hands-on experience given by the universities. In Amal, I thoroughly practised what I learned through a practical approach such as writing a medium blog, Edhi Funds collection and Mega Project. It was truly a road to learning life long skills which would help us throughout life. Moreover, I got the best Amal family. It was a lifetime experience in just 3 months.

The goodbye session

The last session was the most memorable one because it was based on the heart to heart talk.

The best part for me was not any particular activity but the bittersweet feeling of leaving the Amal batch and at the same time hoping for better days. Last time I felt this was when I graduated from university. This feeling is something that imprints in your heart all the memories of a journey.

Heart to heart conversation

Even though we used to talk during previous sessions however, our mind was always focused on the session agenda. This is session was different because we could talk without any restrictions so we did.

It is extremely important to sometimes just connect and talk because everything else is derived from the connection we have for others. Once we emotionally share with others we are able to trust and express our selves in a better way.

Fun activities

Scavenger Hunt

We played the ' Sickening Scavenger Scroll of Secrets ’and it was a lot of fun. There were some rules of the game which made it more thrilling. We were first divided into two groups A and B, then some riddles were assigned to ask. The twist was that we had to figure out the riddle, find the object and then take a selfie picture with it. Even a simple camera picture was not acceptable. We had a chance to interact casually and make memories for one last time. Even in the play, we were applying the problem solving, time management and teamwork skills we learned in the fellowship. One person was uploading the pictures on Google drive, some members were finding the objects and some were sorting out the riddles which were my favourite part. In the end, the winning team was announced. It was one of a kind experience and extremely entertaining.

Question Answers

There was a part when ma’am asked us about how do we make decisions in our life, what superpower we want to have, what makes us happy and one word for Amal fellowship.

Learnings from the session

Work-life balance

The most important thing I learned from the last session was the importance of balance. Balance is the key to a peaceful life. In this stressful world, it becomes difficult to take a break from loads of work. However, a healthy mind breeds a healthy body and vice versa so we tirelessly worked on ourselves in the last three months and had a refreshing session in the last week. We were able to bring back and discuss all our memories.

Gratitude

As I was attending that session, I kept on thinking about how Amal has a totally different environment than other places. I have never been to a place where people are this much humble, empathetic, helping and supportive. I felt a need to be grateful to my batch fellows and mentors for creating such a respectful experience.

I would specifically thanks Ms Hira for asking me that question, ‘ tell me about yourself’ in the session before mock interviews week. I could not answer it and it made me realise where I was lacking both in mental composure and handling a difficult situation. I focused more on the interview because of that event and got the second-highest marks.

I would also love to pass my gratitude to Ms Nimra for the one-on-one session. Thank you for making me believe in myself and telling me that I am a star. The suggestions you gave me were the most precious especially the mirror talk one. It helped me with my interview and presentation.

A token of love for my Amal value as well for being extremely supportive, respectful and appreciative every time someone was not at their best. No one can learn if they are not given space for making mistakes.

Self-reflection

It was a moment of self-reflection sitting in the session thinking of how much I have improved over the last three months. In this testing time how all of us have remained consistent and persistent in the face of adversity.

Last moments

The session ended on some online performance. :D