During my second year of A-levels when I was applying to colleges, I was married to a particular university which was popular and, “had a very good name.” That didn’t work out and I ended up going to a much smaller liberal arts school. To be completely honest, all I wanted was to go to college and I would have accepted anything, but I foolishly thought my experience would be less than stellar since I wasn’t going to a school with a very big name and which most people had heard about. I was worried that my peers at university wouldn’t be ambitious and I would end up getting a lame education and not get a job with a good company. Essentially thought I would never do as well as I would have done at a bigger or better school. 

 

While I was in college, I began to realize that the society I came form (i.e Karachi) advocated big-name things a lot and there was less emphasis on personal growth and having a wonderful experience. What happens is you start living by the rules of others and pay less attention to what’s best for you and more attention on what would sound good to your family. By no means am I saying they don’t know what’s right for you, but occasionally we want things for the wrong reasons. I didn’t want to go to that big name school for myself, I wanted to go there because my family wanted me to go there. Later I realized that it’s this mentality issue, saying a big name school sounds a lot nicer on a Facebook status or at your extended family’s  monthly gathering. 

 

In college, as you will see when you get there, it’s more about experiences, personal growth and learning as much as possible. At least that’s the approach i took. I started thinking less about grades and focused more on the material in classrooms, and on learning and the results were just amazing. 

 

This is not an Ohio Wesleyan sales pitch, this is a pitch of university's which you may not have heard of but still have incredible academic programs. (You should obviously go to a school where you have heard good reviews of). This is a pitch to approach your university search with the faith that wherever you go, your skills and your attitude is what will carry you. Just like you’ve seen at Nixor, there are students who make the most of what the school offers, and those who don’t. 

 

Any university you go to will offer you several avenues where you can take charge and demonstrate your strengths. The job of an institution is not to give you a certification of completion so you can land a job, it’s job is to carve you into the person who lands themselves a job.College gives you experiences that make you grow and most importantly, realize your strengths as well as learn to turn weaknesses into strengths. It is extremely important to know that no college does this process for you, just like no teacher can guarantee you an A. It’s your work that’ll materialize into a good grade, and your interpretation and reflection of your experiences that’ll help you grow. It’s hard, but it takes a lot of self-awareness as well and constant self-reflection. Once you start realizing how little experiences can matter so much later, you start valuing events and things which you thought had no immediate impact. 

 

A little anecdote: At the start of my second year at Nixor, we had orientation for the incoming first years. I worked the event which was an all-night iftari followed by sehri kind of night. Needless to say, we had classes the next day and I naively assumed that since I worked an Nixor related event all night, I’d be off the hook for classes the following day. This wasn’t the case, Sir Nadeem warned me and my friends that if I can work this event all night, and go to work, so can you. Oh and we were fasting too which is such a convenient excuse. In any event, my classmates and I ended up attending the full day of school - walked around like zombies but and it felt terrible. Later I realized, that was one of the best experiences I had ever had because it gave me the strengths to pull all-nighters when I had no other choice. For example, I was at a Hackathon, a 24-hour coding competition where you build a product and at the end of 24 hours you present it. after being awake for so long, I had the confidence to deliver an incredible presentation because  I thought to myself, if I could do that at nixor, while fasting, I can definitely do it now. I won the competition and the company offered me a job. 

 

Sometimes, it’s hard to accept that such ridiculous tasks may come back to help you later, but I sincerely believe that had I not been through Orientation + staying up all night + attending school, I wouldn’t not have the strength to carry me through the Hackathon. 

 

Goodluck with you college selection process and your future endeavors. Fight for the meaningful opportunities, draw on your strengths and become a better version of you each day. You are only competing with yourself and the world wants *you*, not someone you try to be. Be yourself as much as you possibly can and be honest to others, especially to yourself.