Who Am I?
By Muhammad Ali Jalal
This essay received an Honourable Mention in the Global Changemakers Essay Competition 2020.
A hat, a pair of sunglasses, a paper, and a pen is all you need to embark on a road trip that I am going to take you on. Don’t worry, refreshments are on me!
It’s a story which replenished my interpretations of the Zulu proverb, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (A person is a person through other persons.) It was a hot day with a pleasant breeze blowing the dust away from roads when I knew I wanted to do something different after school: I wanted to walk back home. A thirty minute commute converting to two and a half hours on foot- not so bad! Why would I ever want to do it, you ask? From where I come from, strangers don’t smile at each other while walking. On the contrary, we lock our eyes with a stare so intense as if the person painted an offensive mural on our wall. So my sole purpose was to smile and say Assalam o Alaikum (Peace be upon you) to every passerby in the light of the norm that I saw in the U.S. during my exchange year.
Packed with a hint of nervousness and a dollop of motivation, I began walking. I saw a person; smiled at him but he looked away. Came across another one and nothing significant happened. But it wasn’t all in vain, a few people started responding with bright smiles and equally beautiful greetings. Things got interesting when a middle aged man looked at me with utter suspicion as if I fled a mental asylum: not an overstatement. Maybe he was just having a bad day. One street vendor in the midst of what seemed like a Saharan sandstorm of car smoke, saw what I was doing, got excited, and reached over to shake my hand. The appreciation in his eyes was more than enough to cheer me up. Halfway through the journey, I realized that the chain of events happening were a reminder of some of the fundamental principles of life that I had learned over three years. The beginning, when only a few people smiled back, was a reminder that we always have a choice. We can either focus on the negative aspects and stop, or cherish the positive ones and continue. It was also a lesson of consistency. Had I stopped smiling at people after a few failures, I would have given up too early; success after failures comes with the nectar of learned experiences. My whole week was more productive and meaningful after that walk.
Later that month, I thought that if the element of happiness is communicated among people at a macro level, it could potentially improve human connections, psychological health, thereby improving GDP growth rates. I planned to take on this idea to ultimately propose it as the 18th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to the United Nations and, thus, founded “Khushi with Alijah” for this purpose. Like climate change measures, if not implemented promptly, I believe it could lead to declining human-human connections and severe lack of patience among the masses.
Fast forward a few months to when I was invited to deliver a seminar titled “Communicated Happiness as the 18th SDG” to undergraduate students at one of the most prestigious universities of Pakistan. After the seminar, a student stood up and questioned, “You have a long life ahead. What makes you think that you’ll remain happy throughout?” I gave him an answer but it was more of an answer for myself. “It doesn’t matter how long you are happy or successful for. What matters is how often you try to pull yourself up when you’re performing at a low level,” I responded.
I’m not a total genius; I have my shortcomings. I have a lot to learn from life, which gets me excited every time. But like a stallion pulling the ‘Tonga cart’, I’ve learned to pull myself up.
Global Changemakers has an unshakeable mission of supporting youth to create positive change in their communities. A global pioneer in supporting youth-led development, they have trained youth from over 180 countries and provided grants to over 360 youth-led projects, which have had a combined impact on over 6,2 million people. www.global-changemakers.net
DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article belong to the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editor or Global Changemakers.
