When rejection is a triumph

I was going through a few pictures today from the past that brought back the memories of The Humphrey Year. It was the year 2012 when I was accepted for The Hubert H. Humphrey ( HHH) Fellowship. The HHH fellowship is the U.S. State Department’s program, offered to the mid-career professionals. I exactly had five-years in the field of broadcast journalism when I applied for the HHH fellowship. I vividly remember the time when I would work on the fellowship’s application. I didn’t want to share it with anybody as I was not sure if I would even be shortlisted for the interview. I filled out the application and submitted it clandestinely. Not only was I selected for the interview, but I was also able to receive the fellowship for the year 2012-13. There were two journalists from Pakistan selected that year, and I was one of the two. The success in the guise of the HHH fellowship didn’t just happen, rather I got it after a few rejections of other fellowships I applied for in the past.

Before getting the HHH fellowship, I would actively apply for any fellowship I thought I would get. There was not even one rejection but quite a few as I recall now. I was disappointed, frustrated, and clueless as none of the reasons behind the rejection made any sense. You know that is the most interesting yet intriguing facet of rejection. The more you probe into it, the more perturbed you become, especially if its recent. The rejection blinds us from reviewing the reasons behind it. That phase of going through a rejection soon after it happened can either make or break you. How you respond to it, its upto you. Nobody is going to give you a guideline or tips on how to handle it. It is something that you have to deal on your own. I would relate it to a type of grief where you have to devise a strategy on your own to overcome it.

This is what I did after being rejected from several professional fellowships. First, I asked myself why it was so important for me to seek a professional overture like a fellowship. This one question led me to a trajectory of working on the basic requirement to receive any fellowship, and that was experience. I certainly lacked experience, expertise, and skills, the basic requirements for the fellowships I applied for. Second, I stopped applying for any fellowship until I met the requirements stated on the fellowship’s website. All these factors helped me realize and review the rejections by admitting my own weaknesss. This exposed me to the reality of how to apply in the future for the HHH fellowship with confidence and an open mind. The break from not applying to any othe fellowships as I wanted to do it right the next time gave a little confidence. More importantly, just admitting what I lacked was quite a liberating experience. It helped me to grow in many areas that I lacked. For example, building new skills in my field was a stepping stone in my application for the HHH fellowship.

Rejection can be an opening, a new start or an end. But, whatever choice you opt for, make sure, its strengthening you. For, we are not defined by rejections or even acceptance to anything. It is what we do with any rejection or acceptance.

A testimony

I am happy and thankful to God that finally its a weekend. I dont know for some reason-ever since my husband is out of town for work-last week has been the longest and the toughest one. Longest in terms of work and the toughest in terms of what I encountered and has transformed into the testimony.

It was dark outside on Thursday, January 31 when I took Gus, my dog  for a walk before I left for work. Its my routine every day to take Gus out in the morning, if my husband is not home.  I usually take Gus out around 5:30 am. It was another day and another morning. I said prayer and getting ready to take Gus out.

Born and raised in a family, where the morning starts by reading the word of God, and saying prayer before leaving the house has  been my daily routine ever since I personally started reading The Holy Bible, and saying my personal prayer.

I took Gus out and since the dog park is right infront of the apartment, I dont lock the door and don’t take my cell phone with me sometimes, and it was that day when I not only forgot to take my phone with me, but apartment was unlocked as well. Keeping in mind the proximity of the park to the apartment, I could easily keep my eyes on the apartment.

As Gus was running around the apartment, I saw two young girls in their early 20s entering from the parking lot of the apartment. The girls’s demeanor and their actions caught my attention from the minute they entered the vicinity area of the dog park. One of the girls approached Gus ignoring me as if I didn’t exist there. I called Gus to come to me.

Gus is always excited in the morning, and he started running again keeping his eyes on the girls. As those girls started walking farther, one of them took the cell phone out and started taking walking on the patios, started taking pictures of the patios, and trying to peek inside apartments through windows’ blinds.

The suspicion I had of those girls turned into conviction that they were up to something. I immediately called Gus so that we could walk towards the apartment considering I had no phone, and the apartment was unlocked.

After few seconds a guy joined the girls on the bike, and then they were then three people. Usually there were other resident out that time, but no body was out that day.

I saw the guy and I got even more scared.  I didn’t know what to do . I was not planning to run. The best strategy I thought was to walk slow, and not to give them the impression that I was intimidated by their presence.

Before all these thoughts came to my mind, I used my lifeline. I started praying out loud. I dont know if they could hear me, but I said a small prayer that in the name of Jesus those people won’t approach me. I said God you know my situation. I have nothing, I just have you, please protect me.

As I was praying, I started walking towards the apartment. I had that fear that they would enter my apartment since it was unlocked. I was just 10 steps away from them while  walking at a slow pace. God gave me so much strength and courage to walk. I didn’t stagger or stop for a while. Gus sensed that I was scared, he started walking at my pace.

Those girls and a guy never looked at me once. Its just as if God blinded their eyes. They were still walking on the patios and trying to peek inside the windows. When they were walking by my apartment, they didnt even stop for a second or minute. They just left. As they were leaving, I hurriedly entered my apartment and called 911.

Gus was scared and he was observing my moments. I decided to go to the office. As much scared and confused as I was of all that happening, I didn’t want to call off. I just throught it was not appropriate to call off at the eleventh hour.  As I was leaving for office, I saw the officers talking to the girls, but I didn’t see the guy.

The next day, I called officer who was questiong the girls to find out what happened, and that I didn’t see the guy who was with girls. The officer told me that they had arrested one of the girls, but they couldn’t find the guy.

Afterwards, I started telling neighbors and told them what happened. Few of them said I was brave. I said I was not brave, it was my God who gave me that strenght.

I called my husband and I was crying. I told him miracles do happen and it happend for me today.

Those three people could have done anything to me considering I had no phone, and it was dark and nobody else was beside me. I was forgetting that I was not alone. How could I forget that I had the one who is everywhere, the one who is stronger and greater than all my thoughts, fears, confusion and perception. I had the one beside me who stood in the fire with Daniel and saved him in the lion’s den, I had the one beside me who was with Joseph when he was abandoned by his own family, I had the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob beside me, and the name of Jesus infront of him no power of evil can stand.

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 .

God wanted to show me that He is far ahead in His strategy and that those who trust in Him are like mount zion which can’t be shaken. He also wanted to show me that He is my help and my redeemer.

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Psalm 91:11.

That incident also reminded me the importance of the technology that humans are able to create with the wisdom that God has provided. Now, I always carry my phone with me no matter whether I am leaving for a minute or for five minutes.

It is a rational thinking to have all kinds of security measures to secure ourselves. But, final authority rests with God. “Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain.” Psalm 127:1.

Psalm 121:1-2 portrays it like this:

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

The reason of my sharing this testimony is to glorify the name of my savior Jesus Christ. All glory and praise to His name who made it possible that I can share this with you.

“It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.” Psalm 118:8

 

“Keep moving forward” Martin Luther King (MLK)

I woke up just like any other day early this morning. Holidays don’t make much difference since Gus, our pitbull has the schedule of going out early in the morning.

It’s not so much Gus, it’s both me and my husband who always wake up early, and now Gus is the reason to blame for our early wake up.

Not working in the office, and coming across these words of late MLK today, all of a sudden changed my approach to start the day not only today , but for the coming days. I started asking question to myself as to how many times I have given up after somebody said to me that I can’t do it, or I am not good enough, or I have just come up with my own excuse of not doing things. I am sure, I am not the only one guilty in that thought pattern, we all do at some point in our lives. From athletes to writers to singers to artists and it applies to any field of life. We all come up with our own explanation of not doing things or we don’t like to even think about doing something considering its too big to achieve. We don’t even realize that we belittle ourselves more than anybody else can do that for us.

I know I can run for a short while physically, but not for a long time. I can walk for a long time as I love doing that. If I don’t want to go to gym, I come up with my own excuses such as: Gus has to go for walk. Thats true, he loves to go out for walk all the time. But, mostly it’s my own imagination that I use Gus as an excuse for not going to gym.

Besides not going to gym, I have another hobby or interest and thats writing. The  excuse of not writing regularly is my full time job, which can be stressful, but again we all are doing jobs that are stressful. I am not the only one in this world with all these arguments.

MLK’s statement is for you and me. He gave a vivid message with options to not only succeed in life, but also to confront the challenges.

I know not all of us can run after our dreams, passions, interests or even hobbies. How about walking. The excuse of not walking could be job’s timings, household work, social gatherings or whatever you want to add and make that list longer. I can bet on the last option that MLK proposed-crawl. Come on, can we not even crawl. Yes, we all can. There can be no excuse for not moving slowing towards or after accomplishing what we want, or even making a change.

Give crawling a chance.

We all work on so many projects, such as; office, art, business, writing, research and so many others. How about you start a project on yourself. How about you start making, and investing yourself. It can be difficult, but it’s doable. Just like the deadline or timeline for the project we work on, can you do that for yourself. I am so sure we all can. The excuse we all make is there are so many other important things in life.

Counter excuse: Can you make yourself as an excuse.

Having done broadcast journalism for seven years, and writing now for almost a decade. I have left broadcast journalism, but writing still remains my passion. Do you know I gave up on my passion. My excuse was nobody has the time to read my work. If you look at the ground of this reason, nobody has said that to me. I just came up with my own excuse. We all do. We sometimes make ourselves what we want ourselves to be.

“You become what you think about.” Vic Johnson 

You know you very well more than anybody else. Do you want to work on you. I already have started working on myself. I have made a commitment with myself that I will write more regularly. Just yesterday , couple of church members told me how much they enjoy reading my writing.

We all are gifted with talents to make a huge difference in this world, and in someone’s life. Can we start by making a difference in your life by contributing progressively and inputting positive thoughts in your mind. It’s easy, all you have to do is to think about you. Start from somewhere, how about today. Do it.

 

 

Smile

My eldest brother sent me this picture couple of days ago. This is my childhood picture, I think I was around 5 years old when this picture was taken. It’s one of my late father’s photography . When he started doing photography in 1970s, it was mostly black and white.Just looking at the picture, and the way it was taken, one call tell how great photographer he was.

Looking at this picture in the early morning of last Saturday not only brightened my day, but I started my day with a smile. My brother shared with me the reason behind my smile. He told me that he and my mother was standing behind the camera, so that I could focus on them, and smile like the way my father wanted me to for the picture.

Just even thinking about the affection of my brother and mother had made me smile that much during that time when i was just a kid depicts about the impact and the feelings associated with smile. This also reminds of the quote by Maya Angelou : ” If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love.”

This one childhood picture of me smiling is a reflection of a time when life was so easy. I didn’t have to work, all I had to do was to eat, play, and smile for the people I loved. However, that was one phase of the life, which we all have to go through. We all have to grow and start new life after the childhood is over. It is important to grow and start bearing the responsibilities of life that people around us like our parents once bore. Once we start the real life, and start confronting challenges, we realize how much pain and challenges our parents had to go through to bring the smile on our faces.

Looking at the origin of the smile in this picture, I could easily visualize my late father smiling excitedly at me. My father until his last breath always carried the smile. As much trials and troubles he had to face, he always confronted those hard times with smile. His smile and ability to make the best out of the worse taught me so much about the life. Even though he is not with me, his smiling face will always remain alive.

“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.” Thomas Paine.

Smile is a powerful act which not only changes the mood, but impacts our morale and those whom we love. It gives us the energy to fly during the good times, and strength to sail through the hard times.

Amidst all the challenges that life holds, what we all can do is to remain positive and smile as much as we can. Be thankful for the good times, and also for the ones that test our patience, and lead us to difficult paths.

I know it’s hard sometimes, but being sad and pessimistic is not an option. There is hope and positivity in the smile. God also wants us to smile and give Him thanks, as He loves the thankful heart.

“ The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.” Psalm 28:7 

Smile 🙂

Love is above all

I thought of sleeping late and relaxing more the Saturday morning without realizing it was not possible. As we have Gus, our dog pet that awakes us every morning around 4:00am regardless of the weekend.  Gus does not know the importance of the weekend, for him every day is a weekend when either mom and dad is home. Gus knows how much we love him, and we would never be mad at him. As a dog, he understands another language besides English, and, that is love

My Saturday morning started with these verses from1 Corinthians 13:4-7 which I also shared with my husband. 

This is one of the most popular verses from the scriptures, and I remember reciting it and memorizing it by heart as a child while attending the Sunday School. Reciting those verses as a kid, I never realized the deep down meaning of these verse until the time I got old enough to understand the meaning of love as whole.

So many sermons have been delivered on this particular scripture, and so as many writings are published. Each time you read these verses, you get a unique and more beautiful message than you’ve ever expected before.

As I was thinking of my husband while texting him these verses, I started thing about the love of God that how much our heavenly father loves us.

The biblical verses, stories and testimonies share one theme common in all-the love of God. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”John 3:16 .

This particular verse has changed the lives and brought so many people to God. For the people who have never realized how much God can love that He didn’t spare his only son, this verse is not only life changing, but also provides a promise that no matter whatever happens God will always love.  This one verse captures the true essence of love comprising of God’s everlasting love, sacrifice, forgiveness, invitation to all to accept him, everlasting joy, hope, and eternal life.

The Bible also tells us that love surpasses everything.”And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13.

Love also does another thing as mentioned in 1 Peter 4:8. : “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” What a steadfast assurance we have in our love of God that He never judges us. He is always there to accept us regardless of our circumstances.

Sacrifice, patience, humility, forgiveness, faithfulness, unselfishness, trust, joy, and you can add as many words in the list of the things love can do.

Proverbs 3:3-4: “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.”

 

 

I got the “Courage”star

It was a beautiful Church Service last Sunday. The service was filled with uplifting worship songs, heart-warming children’s story, and an impactful message by Pastor Ann Conklin.

Pastor Ann Conklin of the First Presbyterian Church, Mesa is  gifted with graceful personality, soft voice, kind heart as well as, and most importantly with the spirituality and love of our God, Jesus Christ. Having attended this church for more than six months now, I have witnessed the hard work and a great amount of time behind the impactful and spiritual sermons she delivers every Sunday. Filled with hope, faith, encouragement, joy, peace, gratitude, service, and the love of God-I can say with absolute certainty -her sermons touch the hearts and minds of all who attend the service regularly.

As the Last Sunday was Epiphany Sunday, Pastor Conklin’s sermon revolved around the star that led three wise men thousand of years ago to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. As those three wise men found the hope, peace and eternal joy through the star that led them to the king of the world.

Pastor Conklin presented a star to each attendee of the service.  The amazing part about those stars was that each star had a word written on it. You saw the picture of the start I got.

As I randomly picked my star from the basket, I smiled and looked at my star with word “courage.” The word “courage” is the hashtag I use for my blog. I was smiling to myself in the church, and shared this with my husband over the phone as he’s in Tulsa, OK for a training. My husband smiled as well and said “wow.” There couldn’t be an apt word or message and nothing else I was expecting either for myself.

Courage is the word which manifestation I have seen throughout my whole life. Be it the personal adventure or professional endeavors, it was through the courage I have faith through Jesus Christ that I was able to confront some mammoth challenges, and was able to succeed in myriad trials

Courage is not only a word, it’s a tool and foundation of the character that helps you to be thankful during good times, and compels you to smile and confront challenges with grace and dignity. I have seen it in my parents. I have seen it in me while working as a teacher, journalist, now working in higher education, and also in my married life.

The scriptures are filled with different accounts of the courage exhibited by the men of God which leads us to believe that  faith produces the courage. Thats what we have seen in Joseph’s life. Thrown and abandoned by his own brothers, spending life in captivity, however, he had what other inmates lacked, and that was the faith and courage.

I have found my star for this year. I would hold onto that and I have hanged it on my study lamp so that it would not be out of my sight.

Just like the star I got, you all have stars as well. Find your word or make word for yourself. Keep it somewhere that you can look at every day. Let that star shine through your life so that it not only gives you hope, but also to those around you.

I am so thankful to God for His powerful word, and the way He sends us messages which always remind us that we have our light and life in Jesus. No matter how dark or hard sometimes life can be, we will always be conqueror.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10.

Move or Stay

As the new year started so as the thought process of many of us examining whether its time to move in terms of house, jobs or even completely change the pattern of the career, whereas, others just want to stay where they are or what they are doing.  There is nothing wrong with either of these approaches . However, the only problem is if you think you are static, and doing nothing that makes you happy or gives you the sense of accomplishment. Thats a huge problem in this approach. Thats where Einstein’s above quoted words come into action.

I have a couple of views regarding Einstein’s quote:

First view: A ship has to have a destination along with the map, right directions and  equipped with all safety measures to reach the destination safe and sound. Considering the storms and unexpected weather conditions might cause enough harm and hamper the arrival at the destination safely. Yet, the crew does its best to ensure all possibilities to reach the destination safely. However, storm and unexpected weather condition is out of control. Same rule applies to the life as well.

We all make plans, make new moves with absolute certainty that we will succeed. Unfortunately-with some of us-the life is not that easy with new moves and decisions . As with the new move comes challenges and unexpected waves that can pose a threat strong enough to deter us from our destination. Just like the ship, we all do our best to confront different storms, some of us conquer them, whereas, some of us lose courage to fight back.

As a human it happens to all of us. However, don’t let that feeling of dismay overcome your power to fight back. You can do that and conquer all fears. It’s not easy, but not difficult either.

The Bible tells us that we have God on our side all the time, there is nothing that He can’t do. The word of God is full of promises and His promises never end, expire or vanish.

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

This verse like so many other Biblical verses has been my stronghold ever since I have come to know the Lord.  Hebrews 11:1 further tells us about the importance of faith: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” 

When life offers us challenges, we have to fight back and confront those challenges with the help of faith, prayer and hope.

Second view on Einstein’s quote: We are all made by almighty God for a great plan and purpose.

Lately, I was reading a book and I love the way the writer said that when you have lemons, you learn to make lemonade. Yes, we are all skilled of making different kinds of lemonade. Just like a ship which is not built to stand on the shore, so are we all not made by God to sit and be afraid of facing the world, and pursuing our dreams.   We might not succeed at first, but we will learn. Take charge and set a precedent of change maker.

“The world is changed by your example. Not by your opinion.” Paulo Coelho 

I still remember my first broadcast report when I didn’t know how to write a script for the broadcast report. The script written by my editor was immaculate. There was years of hard work and practice behind the editor’s writing the script as perfect as it was.  After years of reading and hard work, I also learned to write an apt script for the broadcast reports.

The same rule applies to any field or any career we choose to adopt. When life throws lemons, make a lemonade. It might not be a good lemonade, but it will prepare you to make the best lemonade one day.

“Commit your actions to the LORD, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3 

 

Hope and Peace for 2019

Hi Friends

Hope you all are doing well. As hard as it is to believe that 2018 is gone, I am happy that it has ended. 2018 has been the year of challenges, as well as good things.

I am so thankful to God that He has the ways to bring good news in different ways. The year ended on a positive and uplifting message brought by “Matsiko Orphan Choir” in the First Presbyterian Church, Mesa yesterday.

Matsiko is a part of  of International Children’s Network (ICN). These children are not adopted, yet, sponsored by the donors so that they can live a strong, independent and fulfilling life and empower their communities after getting education.

The Matsiko kids entered the fellowship hall smiling and dancing while greeting and shaking hands with every member of the church.  Their bright costumes and uplifted spirit brought smiles on the faces of each member of the congregation.

What was so mesmerizing about those kids was the positive attitude, hope and happiness each one of them had. Regardless of the harsh memories of the past, and not having families of their own, each one of those kids was filled with the love and joy of the Lord.

” I believe I can fly and touch the sky” was not just the wording of the song that those kids sang; they certainly had the hope, resolute and will to do so.

The Matisko kids did not only sing, but few of them shared their personal stories as well. The feeling of abandonment and not being loved did not deter those children from achieving big things in life. Those young kids with their small words and touching stories were teaching great lessons to the audience. One of those lessons was to be thankful to God for all the good, and even bad times as those bad times make us stronger.

The Bible clearly tells us in Romans 5:3-5 about the hope that we have in our sufferings through our faith in Jesus Christ:

3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

The talent in the form of the singing, the level of confidence , and the leadership manifested by those kids was the testament to the fact that harsh circumstances refine and strengthen the character. Jumping down the stage and singing individually to the people whom they never saw before exhibited the pure joy, innocence and love.

I was truly blessed to see and witness the joy and the hope that the Matsiko kids shared. I pray that as the year is ending and we are entering 2019, we all have a thankful and peaceful heart so that we all can “Rise and Shine” just like Matsiko sang.

Happy 2019.

Encourage, trust, and keep going

Hello friends

Here we are again, happy Monday 🙂
I hope you all had a fabulous day, and those who had it a bit stressful like me, all I can say that we have made it. We will make it through the week as well. Just keep your eyes on a long weekend with Memorial Day coming next Monday 🙂
As I was walking around the Tempe Campus in my break today, I met a nice colleague. We used to have more chat when I was at the front line as our offices were much closer, and it was much easier for us to talk during breaks, or even early mornings before starting the work. Ever since, I have started this new position, we hardly see each other.
However, today was the day after weeks that we chatted briefly. She said me something that really prompted me to write today. She told me she read what I wrote, and afterwards she said something that boosted my morale further that keep writing, don’t ever give up.
Her words though sound so small, and our chat just lasted couple of minutes revitalized my energy of keep doing what I have done in past.
I worked as a broadcast journalist, and it was my second year in the field that Hamid Mir, my mentor asked me to start writing. I doubted myself, and then he gave the task of writing news of mostly all the talk shows once the program ended. I still remember it took me months to polish my skills in news writing, but very soon I would send the news to the editor without showing to Mr. Mir.
Mr. Mir encouraged me, and more so trusted me. I have my parents in my life to encourage me to go to the university, and backed me up in my major professional endeavors.
No matter how small the words are, the words have the power to break or make you. When my colleague shared her thoughts with me about my writing, it uplifted my spirit, and encouraged me to keep writing.
In the wake of emerging technology, social media, and excess of knowledge of every subject, so much so we can google to research on a word or a topic, and can find thousands articles, books and journals. Sometimes, life does not need an expert’s advice or big words or an encyclopedia to feel good, and even make others feel good.
Therefore, start your week by encouraging each other, and appreciating the ones you love, and care. This one small act itself is a big refreshing therapy.
This is what the Bible teaches us about encouragement: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11

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Learn from mistakes

As this week is coming to end, I am not only happy, but thankful in so many ways. I work for the ASU international admissions. I  evaluate the undergraduate international students, and also work on processing I-20s. As arduous and stressful it sounds, I have to say I love my job. Every day is a new learning. I have started this position in late January of this year. I had the experience of working in the admissions before, as a result I acquired the knowledge of working with domestic and international students. Therefore, it was a useful transition in a way that I could in fact work on so many things that I used to hear or discussed with the students.

Arizona State University (ASU) is an amazing place of learning, and I have not realized until, I , myself started working here. Particularly, now when I am evaluating the international student, and helping them accomplish their dreams, I relive the moments of happiness, joy and accomplishment of coming to the US as a Humphrey Fellow back in 2012. Interesting enough, that I spent my nine-months at the Cronkite School. In 2012, I didn’t even have any inkling that AZ would be my home after five years, and ASU will be my new working place.

Part of my reason of loving this job is my coworkers, especially Kathy, and Trish from whom I learn everyday. Both Kathy and Trish have that gigantic pile of information regarding international admissions in their heads. Always willing to help anyone who comes to them, these two ladies do not stop impressing me.

This week has been extremely busy like all other weeks. As the days are approaching to start the fall semester, each day will be busier than before. One experience I want to share with you all from this week is about the mistakes I had made at work. As, I was reviewing some of the cases that we all have to work, I realized we all sometimes make mistake sunder the pressure, knowingly to correct them later, and unknowingly to not even realize that moment that it would be a mistake.

I have worked as a producer for Pakistan’s leading talk show for seven years. During my career as a broadcast journalist, when I was in charge of the run down, and making graphics, I recall making mistakes particularly in two live shows. In one show, a guest who was also the finance minister highlighted the mistake in the order of dates. It was not as big of a mistake, but he made a big deal out of it. Later on, Mr. Hamid Mir, host of the show came to me. Before, he said anything, I immediately admitted that it was my mistake. I gave my editor the right order of the dates, but he didn’t check it. That day,  I had no time to finally review the graphics before on airing of the show, as I used to check the graphics one final time before they went on air. Later on, my editor came, and said why I admitted it as my mistake, when it was actually his. I told him by the end it was my responsibility as a producer of the show to check what was being on aired.

I have learned over the years that owning mistakes, and learning from them refine our personality, and also help strongly shape our values. We all make mistakes, and some want to run away from them. In an attempt to run, they end up making same mistakes, and that attitude of not admitting what we have done wrong in the end makes things worse. We become stagnant, and weak to test our abilities which hamper our personal and professional growth.

Friends, as this week is ending. I want you to reflect on some of your big mistakes, and just like me you will see that you are an overcomer, and conqueror. We become stronger every time when we not only admit our mistakes, but learn from them as well.

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