A Better ‘Self’: My Journey

In this page, I share with you my experience in trying to be a better person. In my point of view, a good person is someone who has a role in life that s/he chooses and works hard to play it in the best way possible. Maybe some of the ideas included here inspire you of anything positive to improve yourself or others’.

Any person is welcomed to share a useful experience on the way of being a better ‘self’. May this page be a hub for anyone who is looking for the same way………..

Episode 1: Faculty days and orphanage visits……

        When I was a student in the second year of faculty, I thought that I’m good for nothing even though I was on the top of my class and achieved the highest grades in most of the subjects. I kept on asking what’s the reason of my life and what am I created for. I always had a feeling that I am created for a great cause that I have to look for. I also had to look for means of achieving something valuable.

        I kept on asking everyone I could see to look for this cause. After some time, in a I ran into the fact that there exists an orphanage nearby that needs donations. I went there to give them some money but then, I had a wonderful feeling. I felt that my cure was with these children. I loved them so much and they loved me back. Afterwards, my visits no longer became a blessing for them, but a blessing for myself and a cure for my soul. The birthday party that I held in their ‘house’ was the most enjoyable one I have ever had. Again, not because I was doing good to them, but because they had so much potential to make others happy, just when they were given a chance and not treated as dependents and parasites. It was a day when my invitees and I laughed and played from the deepest part of our hearts. Years passed by and I still visit them whenever I feel blue to cure my soul and erase my griefs.

Episode 2:  Graduation project: Street Children………….   

            When I reached graduation year, I had to choose a  graduatin project (in Statistics, my discipline). My colleagues chose several ordinary statistical topics to study. Most of them chose topics that only needed visits to places like libraries and offices of professors and employees. Only three projects, among the twenty, I found really challenging. The first one, was a study of a house of elderly. The second, was a study about cancer children at the National Cancer Institute. The third, was my group’s: a study about street children in Egypt.

         We were a group of three young ladies that held interviews with almost 200 street children (and adolescents) in 10 different outlets of the NGO we were dealing with. Some of these outlets were in the city, while others were in distant cities. Children that we met were in different phases of street life. Some of them were still experiencing street life with all its mental, psychological, and physical diseases. These only came to the NGO every now and then (not often though) to take a shower, play ping-pong, or find a safe place to sleep away from the police. These were the times when we met them. Others were in a phase that is more humaine. They were registered in the NGO to reside there temporarily. They had clean clothes, faces, and hands, but not much cleaner souls with the traces of terrible memories, instability, and insecurity they had experienced. 

           This was my first real and profound experience in the world of ”development”. Having understood that a street child is only the interface of a rotten family and society, I was on the first step of my way to “the role” I was looking for.

Episode 3:  Masters thesis: Poverty and female work…………..

    When I started to look for a topic for my Masters degree, I was faced with the problem of trying to find a topic that has a feedback on the society and fits as a statistical study as well. I chose to study poverty and women labor market in Egypt. This path was not commonly studied before in Egypt and the Arab world. I faced so many troubles because this topic was mainly studied in Economics or Sociology. Sometime afterwards, many M.Sc and Ph.D theses started to study poverty in my department. I felt I had a role in opening the gate to introducing sociological aspects in the Statistics department where I study.

Episode 4: Summer School and NGO involvement……….  

   Three years after graduation, teaching, and Masters study, I had the same feeling of being good for nothing. I felt I had a greater role than the one I’m doing. However, I had no clue where to start. 

    One day, while reading the announcements on the bulletin boards of the faculty,  I found an announcement about a summer school on sustainable development. Being interested in development but knowing nothing about its sustainability, I was eager to attend such a course. It was a four-week course, four days per week, from 9 am to 5 pm and some days there were extra public lectures until 9 pm. In the meantime, I had nothing written in my Masters thesis more than the proposal and some literature review. Being in summer and having no courses to teach, one of my friends told me not to attend this time-consuming summer school to be able to move on with my thesis. I put this opinion aside and attended the course. I never knew that this will be my gateway to the world that I looked forward to being a part of.

   After the course and learning so much about sustainable development, I came up with a great network of friends working/volunteering in the world of development. One of these friends proposed to us the idea of applying what we learned throughout this month or else it would be a waste of time and effort. We all agreed to join the NGO he proposed to us.

   I first joined the NGO as a member in a project related to the very same group of the summer school and kept observing all the other projects in the NGO. I then became the head of a project preparing and organizing public lectures in development-related issues. This series of lectures expanded my network and enhanced my communication skills as well as my coordination and logistics skills.

    Moreover, from my new network , I knew about two travel opportunities in exchange programs. One of them was a two-week summer school in Italy and the other was a three-week training course in the USA. Once more, these travels made me see things differently, think of new ideas, gain more experience, and fulfill my strong desire for a  change in my life and thoughts.   

   Ever since, the snowball of learning and networking took its way on……..