Positive Reflection On Amal Journey
The 3-month Amal journey was wonderful and unforgettable. While I am reflecting there are a lot of good memories and don’t know from where to start. I remembered during our orientation we were told that these 3 months of your life will be amazing and Amal fellowship proved it 100% true. There are so many takeaways from Amal and it’s very difficult for me to reflect on a single incident. I joined Amal for career guidance and to regain my self-confidence but there was much more for me to gain and learn. Amal gives me new perspectives and changes my thought process.
The concept of knowing yourself was beautifully delivered with the concept of Allama Iqbal’s Khudi and it was a great source of learning for me. First time in my life I started thinking with the perspective that Amal comes before khudi. Amal’s teaching “Just start and let the work teaches you” is a great takeaway for me. I realized that I used to think about my goals in life but not take action towards them. Amal teaches us to take small actions heading towards our goal.
I used to talk about all the flaws in our education system but during the Amal course, I came to know that there are a lot of people who are volunteering and working for the betterment of education in Pakistan. They were those people who instead of talking about the problems came up with the solutions. I learned from it that stop talking about problems, think about their solutions and play your side of the role and that’s what Amal does. Our education system fails in developing soft skills and career counseling, Amal came up with the solution and designed a course for filling up this gap.
My perspectives about leadership, job hunting, entrepreneurship, vocations, volunteering, and goals changed. I first time came to know that leadership is all about taking initiatives and responsibility. I came to know about how to come out of your comfort zone. I realized that how much it’s important to do volunteer work. Amal totkay for a shift of fixed mindset towards growth mindset was very useful for me. First time in my life I realized the importance of teamwork and learned the concept of the Most Valuable Team Player (MVTP).
I want to share the incident when I first time realized that Amal changed me. There was a renowned shop of herbal products in a mall, which used a lot of fragrance for their advertisement campaign, and that fragrance irritated the passersby a lot. Being allergic to the fragrances, it used to be very difficult for me to pass near that shop. Whenever I passed by that shop, the fragrance irritated me badly. I felt uncomfortable every time but all I used to do is murmur against the shop and never thought about some solution of the problem. During Amal fellowship, one day I was standing near that shop and saw a woman passing by that shop. The horrible expressions of discomfort came on her face due to that fragrance. I realized that it’s not only a source of discomfort for me but also for a lot of people. I said to my husband why no one complains to them and he replied “then go and complain to them” and he was sure that I am not going to do that. I said “ok” and turned back towards the shop. I went to them, talked about the problem, and tried to realize them the issue in a very decent way. When I came back my husband was standing surprised, he said: “you really went there and talked to them, I thought you were joking”. He was happy that I took the initiative and spoke up which I previously never used to do. At that moment I realized that Amal takeaways changed me. I felt the responsibility and took initiative rather than talking and complaining about the problem which I was doing previously. All the takeaways from the Amal fellowship are very valuable for me and I will use them throughout my life.
