Journey Beyond the Horizon
Is it really a career change or I just started
my journey beyond the horizon?
my journey beyond the horizon?
Life has taken many turns for me.
Becoming a mechanical engineer was not my first choice. I was forced into this
field since I could go to the engineering school and work at the same time in
order to take care of my family. Being the eldest child and no father to take
care of us, I had to be the bread earner, medical school was not an option. Goals,
dreams, and aspirations; these are the things my life has always revolved
around. My question: What does one do
with all the opportunities that life has presented?
Life made another turn and I was laid
off and could not find a decent job as an engineer. Selling computers at a
major retailer and self-teaching the IT courses landed me a job in Microsoft
Corporation. Walla, a very decent job, I couldn’t complain and thought that I would retire from that
company with some decent money. Not so, my dear, life was not so sympathetic this
time either. I developed cancer and was laid off again. While lying down in the hospital bed, I promised myself that if I survived
this disease, I would go to medical school. My son was admitted to the prestigious Georgetown University School
of Medicine, in their MD/Ph.D. Program. I
said to myself, if the son could do it, then the father could do it too. I survived,
just to go through another trial of life. I went back to school and did my
pre-requisites for the medical school and applied. Walla, I got admission in
two medical schools. But I was born with the strangest of luck. I could not join
medical school since my daughter developed
two different kinds of cancers and passed away after three months and 26 days
of her diagnosis. My life changed. I lost my heart, my competitive edge, my motivation,
my enthusiasm.
I started spending more and more time
in my daughter’s room. We left it the way she left it. The picture hangings, the bed, the study tables, her medals
and certificates, even the dressing table, still remain the same as she left. I
used to talk to her if she was there listening to me, I sent her text messages,
I called her phone number, but she was not there to answer any of my calls. One dark night, while sitting in her room
floor, I talked to myself that what about the legacy she left behind. She used
to adopt cancer patients and used to be with them, to encourage them, to
motivate them and be there as their
family, but who knew that one day she would become one of them. We rejuvenated
our daughter’s foundation and are now doing the same tasks she used to do. We
adopt terminally sick patients and their families and help them in whatever
needs they have, financial, medical, moral, and everything else. My wife is
working full time in this endeavor.
Besides the ZKAAP foundation, my
daughter used to tutor underprivileged and mentally challenged students. Out of
her bequest, I took that venture to educate the disadvantaged and needy
students of the third world. I didn’t know where to start. While researching, I
came across the Learning Technology program offered by the University of North
Texas. I spare no time and walked into
the office Dr. Lynne Cox to know more about the program. Her smiling and very encouraging
personality lit the fire again in me. She was very kind to listen to my story and suggested to enroll in
the MS-LT program. I applied and got in. Now, I am committed to finishing the program with a Ph.D. degree. I am destined to learn about how to light the beacon of
education in the dark lives of who cannot reach the light of knowledge.
I
have always believed that my commitment to serve the humankind will take me
there, to improve the lives of people. Because of all the difficulties I have
encountered and the opportunities I have been given, educating the deprived has
become my obvious choice. The traumatizing, life-changing incidents that I have
come across have led me to follow my goal no matter what stage of life I am in.
I want to be a messiah in order to prevent things that I went through from
happening to others, I should be a compassionate person to be involved in
changing the lives of people in need, I must become a world-class educator
because I care and I will be the beacon of light in the darkness of illiteracy
desert. My efforts are changing the lives of people. A state-of-the-art
high-quality United States K-12 school is starting in rural Punjab, Pakistan in
the coming fall, an online K-12 school is in the development stage, and many
underprivileged but deserving students from Africa are already getting higher
education in the US colleges with my help. I am working on developing a Digital
Tutor to reach the students in remote areas of the world, where schools are
scarce but yearning for education is high. I realized that in order to teach, I
have to learn how to teach and this program has offered tremendous knowledge of
new ways and techniques of delivering education to the needy.
I
am confident in my enthusiasm and ability, and I sure that with the help of
this program and my noble professors, I would
make a change in the world. My life revolves around the great businessman,
Colonel Harland Sanders and I am a true reflection of his thoughts: "I
made a resolve then that I was going to amount to something if I could. And no
hours, nor amount of labor, nor the amount
of money would deter me from giving the best that there was in me."
(Sanders, n.d.)
Life!
Here I come again with full force, with full enthusiasm, with full confidence.
Try to defeat me again. I am going to fight back.
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