I have finally completed my year-long fellowship! This time last year I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to make it through the fellowship.
On our graduation day my entire class was given letters that we wrote to ourselves a year ago. I had completely forgotten about the letter and when I opened it on the last day of the fellowship, it was a check-list of things that I wanted to achieve. Below are some of them with short explanations:
- Work extremely hard: I think that I did this during my year as a fellow at Meridian International Center. I worked hard to program exchanges and develop curricula and trainings
- Have fun and be safe: I did have fun last year but there were times when I wasn’t safe- I got struck by a car while crossing the street!
- Do NOT quit: This is probably the most interesting because there were certainly times when I wondered why I couldn’t be typical and did things according to the rules. I am SO glad that I did not quit and had a very productive year
- Make sure you inspire and impress people with your work: I hope that I was able to accomplish this 🙂
- Do something that you wouldn’t do in Pakistan: There were several things that I did last year that I wouldn’t do in Pakistan. The one that stands out would definitely be skydiving, I never thought I would ever jump out of a plane
All in all my year at Meridian and as an Atlas Corps fellow was amazing. There were definitely times when I thought of leaving the fellowship, but that would’ve been easy. I took on what I considered to be a challenge and I think it ended well. In addition to my work, I am so grateful for all the amazing people that I met during my fellowship!