Azra Wakeel Ahmed

Academic

Career

Verbatim text

Azra Wakeel Ahmed (18I-0165) 
 
 Being called an average student my entire life, I could feel the academic pressure accumulating as I 
 grew up. I wasn’t even sure about my favorite subject so that I could focus on it. I wasn’t sure what 
 I would be doing in the next five years when I was in 8th grade. When kids my age were dreaming 
 of success, all I could do was dread failure. My future was ambiguous, I could see no clarity in my vision and in the middle of that, I got a ‘C' grade in my Islamiat CIE. This was the point that my confidence shattered. I could hear people discussing my grades and comparing me with others. I had lost hope. I lost hope In improving myself. In my view I had worked so hard, and if that hard work didn’t pay off, what could?  
 When I stepped into my A'levels I didn’t believe in myself enough to opt for subjects like math or sciences, which are apparently the toughest. So I opted for humanities, that too, with little hope. However, unexpectedly enough, I got an ‘A' in my subjects. People around me in my college were new to me, hence they hadn’t seen the old struggling Azra. My new friends, teachers, and the principal started viewing me as an intelligent and talented girl. I was chosen to provide mentoring sessions to my fellow classmates who were repeating the courses to improve their grades. I started taking part in extra curricular activities like table tennis tournaments just because the people around me told me that I could, I mentored an entire class of students just because people thought I was capable, since then I never went below average in my studies, just because people believed in me. August 2018 I had my first university class. The supporting friends and teachers I had been blessed with in my college were not around. I was afraid. I was afraid that I might not be able to survive without them. My first week went horrible. I would come back crying everyday. I knew I was a high achiever but why was I not feeling the same here. “Why do I not feel confident?” I would ask myself. I then realized that I had become overly dependent on people's approval for me to believe in myself. It is great that I understood this very soon and talked to myself about this. I realized that the same people will not always stick around me. The only support that could be relied on was within. Since then, I took up every challenge that came my way. My thoughts became my strength. My faith became my victory and my trust proved so powerful that I became capable enough to be awarded several dean’s lists and medals throughout my degree. But I do realize that the journey has not ended. Life will keep challenging me, and I am glad that I have learnt the most important lesson to face them. ‘Self-Belief’.