A Trip Down Memory Lane

I have been sitting in front of my laptop for the past 2 hours with no clue about what to write and how to express all the emotions I felt during the first 2 weeks here at Amal Academy. However, I have to write something and I believe that there are moments where you have experienced a lot but you just cannot connect the dots. Still, I take a deep breath and close my eyes and move back in time to the first session that we had.

The first session was like entering into a classroom for the first time. It was as if walking into a misty forest where visibility is zero after every 5 or 6 meters. Just like the fog surrounding the person I was surrounded by so many thoughts: How am I going to manage it? What if things go out of hand? What will I do if I am put on the spot? How will I interact with new people? Uhhhh…I have to work in a team????

All these thoughts were crawling on my brain and towering over it. They were covering my emotions just like the branches of a tree growing slowly branch by branch. The roots of the tree once in a while twisted, turned, and separated just like my thoughts opening a new door every minute. However, I hardly knew that these were not there to make me anxious but to make me strong, well-prepared, and stable just like the roots of a tree.

A walk in a forest is spiritual because the sound of the different elements that surround it makes you calm and relaxed. However, all I could hear was my parents scolding my brother, and my mother arguing with the maid. Meanwhile, I was just sitting in the corner tapping the space bar on my laptop continuously to wake it up from sleep so that I could join our first session on time. With the environment being full of anger and frustration, to my surprise, I heard a cheerful hello and it covered the surrounding like dew hiding flower’s trying to bloom.

I think that the first and the last day of an adventure are the hardest and this situation was not different. On the first day, we were given an insight into how things would move around in this fellowship, and even though I am a calm person but the thought of not being able to commit was scary. Still, everything new or challenging is scary even this walk down memory lane is daunting but you have to keep walking.

The online courses were not that hard but the project works associated with them were hard. However, that is life, we have experienced time and again that theory is easy but its applications are difficult. It all comes down to the effort you put into it and to how much you honor your time.

Amal VS Khuddi

During an adventure when you are immersed in the surroundings you would not want to engage in anything related to your work. For a minute just imagine that you are in a beautiful setting with a breeze touching your skin and the noise of the leaves moving just whistling in your ear. Now in this setting imagine a person moving like a pendulum and blabbering about work. I don’t know about you but I would seriously let loose wild bees on him. Well at this moment the only thing that you would want to surround yourself with would be something spiritual, that has a meaning like a philosophical debate between Amal & Khuddi.

For those who don’t know about Amal and Khuddi, I will use this opportunity to give you an insight into their meanings. Amal means to take action and khuddi is all about believing in yourself. I remember that I was at my grand mother’s house attending the session and I remember what I said during the debate:

“Before knowing how to swim and before knowing how to run you have to run. By only believing in yourself you cannot achieve anything. You have to start it, you have to test the water, and only then by believing in yourself and practicing, you can move forward.”

I was excited when I said that and I was feeling like the flower that was once planted and now it has started to bloom.

The entire debate was informative and it was great to notice the different mindsets in our batch.

1+1=11 How……..

Working in a team has always been difficult for me because I like to complete the project by myself without anyone’s help. I was under the impression that teamwork slows your progress and does not enhance your skillset. However, soon I realized that there is not a single person behind your success, instead, there is a team of people who are contributing towards your success.

The activity that we did during that session was informative because it opened up teamwork and turned out to be a good practice of what was coming next. When you go on an adventure with a big group you often divide yourselves into mini-groups of 4–5 members for activities. Those activities are not demanding instead they are just to cheer you up and to make you comfortable socially. However, during the session, we were informed of something called circles; turned out to be another name of groups. The entire batch was split into 7 circles of 7–8 members.

Every group no matter how small it is needs a leader and that leader can be anyone but it has to be decided on the first day the group is formed. In the online course, there was a concept of opting to be a leader, so I applied it. Still, I never had the slightest hint that the job of a leader is tough.

Ek Aur Ek Giyarah is a wonderful concept and we can also see its implementation in nature.

The roots are making the foundations strong and stable and the trunk is giving it structure. The branches coming out of the trunk spread, twist, and turn into twigs which give it the green color in the form of leaves. Nonetheless, every part is doing its best in contributing towards a trees stability, and beauty.

Conclusion

I wish I had more time but like I said it’s difficult to express a trip down memory lane and list down all experiences and emotions. However, I have mentioned the ones that I clearly remember and that are sort of the foundations of Amal principles. I hope that you enjoyed reading it and just for your fun here are some other pics that I clicked during my trip down memory lane.