Taking Flight — For Better Future

“Don’t ever tell anyone anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.” — J.D. Salinger

As mentioned in the above quote, I never want to write my blog about my last session in the Amal prep fellowship. This is not because I don’t have any memory or emotional attachment with the batch. This is because I have a lot of memories and emotional attachments with my fellows that it hurts me a lot when I try to explain in words. This reminds me of my whole three months in fellowship how we spend this time like a family.

For an outsider, these are only and only three months which will be conducted online. They consider it like ordinary or typical classes held on weekends. I thought this too before applying. Long story short, I applied and was selected for this program. In the first week, all are very annoying to each other. I always join the session in the first place and try to start a conversation. But as time passed, we became comfortable with each other. The main point of this strong bond with each other is just to talk and connect. When we emotionally uplift someone, this will create a bond of trust in each other. In Amal’s fellowship, we do this all the time. We never judge anyone. We always try to push others, give them some motivation, inspiration and help them in any difficulty. Above all, which I like most is the habit of appreciation for small acts. Our Program Manager and Associate are keen enough to absorb the small improvements in the whole batch and then they give them the shout-outs every week. This act works like a sword sharp from both sides. First, it gives motivation to the person who achieves appreciation to do his best again, second, it inspires the whole batch to do such a work and receive appreciation.

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” — Semisonic

In the last session, we all were very emotional and happy too. We are emotional because it is the end of the fellowship, but we are happy that we meet each other on this platform. That day we do general chit-chat and revise our whole journey. We do very interesting activities. I am very glad to see that everyone is showing their gratitude not only to the instructor but to each other too. At the last of this session, we take a group photo and a few last pieces of advice from our advisers and say goodbye and see you all soon Insha’Allah.

Nonetheless, we all were here to learn something. We were here to improve our soft skills. We worked on our communications skills which we are using in our daily life as well. I learned to over-communicate, which I was lacking earlier, and I specifically started working on it and started practicing it. Generally, I am trying to apply all that I have learned in Amal in my daily life like cooperation, taking a lead wherever needed, and offering help if necessary.

‘If you are brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello — Paulo Coelho

“You have to take the good with the bad, smile when you’re sad,

love what you’ve got and remember what you had.

Always forgive but never forget,

learn from your mistakes but never regret,

people change, things go wrong, just remember life goes on…”

• Emy Rees Andreson