Reflections on my Amal Journey
My journey with Amal has been life changing. It may seem cliché but it is true. I came to Amal with high expectations after hearing heaps of praises from my friends who are all Amal alumni and by my first hand observations of their growth. But I can confidently say that all my expectations have been blown out of the water and I am more than satisfied by my experience. These past few months have been a great journey of growth, learning and self-assurance. I have learned so much in every session, with every project and with every interaction I had with my fellows, program manager and program associate. I am beyond grateful for everything and everyone that has helped me and supported me in this time.
If I sit down and think about the things that impacted me from this experience, it would probably take me a while to even list all of them let alone pick one that impacted me the most. However, one thing that really played a part in refining my skills is the entire process of my Mega Project. If I am being honest, even before applying for the fellowship I was kind of dreading the mega project. Even though my friends all shared their positive experiences, I was still intimidated by the prospect. Mainly because I was dreading working in a group on something that I would have to manage without any authoritative help. But once I got to know my team and started working on it I realized it was not as bad as I thought. The part of the project that impacted me the most however, was the process of making arrangements for our webinar.
I have always regretted not taking the initiative and working in a society. Planning for the webinar gave me a taste of the experience I missed. I learned that I could work under pressure, could multitask and also contribute to decision making. I may not be the best in all of these things but just having this experience assured me that I was more capable then I thought I was. This self-discovery would not have been possible if I had shied away from Amal. This part of the project really made me realize of the possible strengths I have and now I can work on polishing them further. My team members played a role in this as well by supporting and appreciating me. One person in particular really motivated me to give my all and I am beyond thankful to her for all the positive energy she brought to the team. If given the chance to repeat this experience, I would probably manage things better. I would also set some boundaries and be more confident of my own decision making skills.
Overall the entire ride with Amal has been a great experience for me and I am glad that I got to experience this. I can not wait to branch out further, grow more and practice all the skills I learned so far. I also can not recommend this fellowship enough and as of now I am on the mission to lead some more people to this road. I believe that programs like this can really shape our young generation and lead them to success.
