A friend told me that there are three things that are important in ones life. Health, wealth and growth. If any of those things are missing you can’t be successful. I try to live with this advice and so far it’s really helped me prioritize things in my life.

One of my biggest priority is myself. I find time to do things that make me happy. Not many people know this but I love to play the ukulele. For those thinking about starting out on an instrument, the ukulele is a good option. I’m also passionate about Urdu Literature. Urdu poetry is beautiful. I write poetry myself too and have my talented friends turn it into music. If I had to think about an alternate career path, I’d love to be a music composer.

My family is a big part of life. My weekends are spent helping them with grocery shopping and visiting our relatives. I’ve got sort of a funny relationship with my brother. He’s only two years older than me and we’ve always sort of had a sibling rivalry thing going on. We used to play wrestling a lot when we were kids. It would often turn into an actual fight. This one time he was winning and I knew I didn’t stand a chance so I pretended to act dead. My brother got so freaked out he called my mom and to this day he still believes he beat me to the point where I fainted.

I believe it’s good to reflect on yourself and see how far you’ve come as long as you don’t let anyone disrespect you. I’m a different person than I used to be. My time at IBA played a large part in this. The fast paced environment really taught me how to interact with people and get out of my bubble. I’ve also learned how to be a good listener. I came to the realization that sometimes people don’t want you to give them advice, they just want you to listen.