If I had to describe my life in one word, it would be ‘unique’.

I wouldn’t say my experiences have been

anything out of the ordinary, but what is unique about me is the collective extraordinary development
of the many ordinary experiences I’ve had so far – a jumble of words, but I can’t think of any better way
to describe it.

I was born and raised in the capital of Pakistan, Islamabad, and, though it does damage my ego a little to
admit this, I lived a very pampered childhood. Which is odd, because the situation my family was in
during those times – financial and otherwise – would’ve resulted in me receiving way less of a proper
upbringing than I had, but my parents never really let me feel like we were underprivileged. I barely
remember this time of my life, but I did once get elected as the head boy for an entire school in my
junior years, which is the biggest honor for any student and, as 17-year-old me right now, I honestly
have no idea I managed to pull that off.

Following 3rd grade, my family moved to Saudia Arabia because my dad got promoted but things went
downhill from that point onwards. Being suddenly cut off from everyone I knew, I really didn’t have
anything going for me besides my academic record – which, in itself, was the pressure from two PhD
professor parents always looming over me – and I became very isolated. I came back to Pakistan in
2019, almost a decade later, weighing over 240 pounds and being at the lowest point of my life.

What followed settling down in Pakistan was a bizarre, covid locked-down year, struggling with anorexia
and other related problems – a lot of personal struggles I never really had help working with and a lot
that I still work with today. But, in a way, that’s what I take most pride in, being able to overcome
everything on my own.

After a lot of personal growth and recovery, I realized I had wasted a lot of what were supposed to be
the ‘golden years’ of my life; I hadn’t done anything, hadn’t devoted my time to being productive and
had been stuck in place for so long - so I promised myself that things would change.

2021 came around and I started changing my life for better, the start of it all being a bronze medal in the
IKLC, the first in many contests I started signing up for. Later, I even started giving lessons to my friends
and juniors for the tests, one of who actually won a bronze medal himself.

In the middle of 2021, I realized my passion for public speaking - an odd fascination for someone as
awkward as me - and pushed myself out of my comfort zone to start a debate team at my school. It was
definitely difficult to fit in at first but, even so, I attended 3 MUNs and even played my hand in the
debating nationals - not winning, but going much, much farther that I had ever anticipated. I started
studying for my own sake, my own interests, and I was the happiest I have ever been seeing straight A’s
and A*’s on my O level result last August.

By the end of last year, I became obsessed with the idea of keeping busy, simultaneously being selected
in my school’s basketball team, joining the gym and buying a guitar to get into music. I’ve become very
competitive, and I still have a lot planned for the future; running for head boy next year, competing in
gymnastics, applying to my dream universities, making something of myself and always having a purpose
to work towards in life - I hope I can do the same throughout this course.