Knowing Yourself

Muhammad Saad Mazhar

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Under the auspices of my learning through the chapter “Knowing Yourself”, I begin to observe many similarities between the various personifications, as described in the chapter, and my past narratives that are worth reflecting. I had also experienced many obstructions while pursuing my objective in life; Even though, it sounds like a cliché but it is what it is. Although, it’s an arduous task to dwell on the past and come up with the productive elements that could be applied in the present to shake up the current juncture; but if we just overlook our legacy or whatever we experienced in the days gone by, we shall never end up in a conclusive territory. However, to rise to the challenge, I must recall my past events or experiences that are worth reflecting so as to assess the corollary of my reinvention, which I made to transform myself to counter the contemporary issues that I had at that particular moment.

Up till my graduation, I was debunked and undermined by my class mates in studies, sports or any other competition; owing to my careless attitude in whatever I do. I didn’t have the urge to forge ahead in life and also have the unbridled emotions that could take me nowhere. Just because, I hadn’t made waves for a while; my siblings and cousins were started to crack cheeky jokes on me as I was very childish but imaginative. I used to play with toys even after my matriculation; which seemed odd and made people laugh as and when they observed me playing with toys.

I had never had a feeling to make headways in life. Even though my parents tried very hard to communicate me the realities of life; but I always ignore them, not because I don’t respect their perspective of life, and kept on doing palaver jobs to burn time, as it was my wont. Not only my parents were involved in giving me lectures to help my constant careless behavior towards studies; but also my relatives who were apparently giving me advices under a façade that was palpable, as I knew that they did make fun of me while having indiscreet gossips with their significant others.

Later, the days were passing by, and I had been staying on the course until a huge shocking event comes my otiose way of living: I was failed in F.SC (First Year) in a very devastating fashion; I didn’t have the temerity to tell my significant others as to my progress in the recently concluded final exam of FSC. Somehow, I managed to promise my parents that I would work hard henceforth and reinvent myself to get good grades in the next year.

After one year, I attained only passing marks, and have shown very little progress as it was expected by my parents. Even though, they enrolled me in one of the best academies of that time; but I ended up by being the student who attained the lowest marks in the same academy. My parent’s remarks about the result were quite worthwhile; as they were conceded that our son could never become a brilliant student in life and they became really disgruntled but willing to orientate me towards the right direction.

In the second year examination of FSC, i secured yet again passing marks; then, flaunted it off to my parents and tried to please them on grounds that I finally swept through my intermediate. Now, it was the time for me to embark upon ACCA’s prerequisite CAT from UK, as my brother, who was a UK citizen, promised me to let me visit UK for my further studies. As an irony, it was all otherwise, when he saw the results on the internet, he didn’t bother to talk to me on phone the whole day on account of his frustration that why my younger brother is not working hard and ignoring the ideal facilities that he has

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for his studies. Then, after a day, he called me on my phone, and rebuked me to the max. He asked me what are you doing, Saad? – I answered nothing just sitting on my chair. Then, he said in an angry voice,” when you’ll stand up and walk through your feet”. My brother didn’t know how effective talk he was making at that time; meanwhile, the circulation of my blood was getting intense, my reinvention process was on the go, because I knew that the dream that I had of going to UK and doing the rest of education was in serious jeopardy.

Now, it was the time I reinvented myself, I didn’t ask anyone that whether I would be going to London or not. I took full charge of my life; I enrolled myself in B.com, as it seemed quite easy for a science student. By the time I started B.com, my friends had been making fun of me, as they were doing engineering from NUST and FAST. I tuned them out and began to focus; I evaluated my weaknesses and strengths to make myself a better student henceforth: I understood that my English and Mathematics is very weak and I needed to work on it as much as possible.

Now, if I look into my transformation, I can easily demystify it by executing the lessons of knowledge, as described in the chapter. In this way, it follows:

I became my own teacher:

Although, there were many teachers who contributed in making me a better student, but I took the responsibility by visualizing a dream of my own. I wanted to learn as much as I can to make up for the lost time. I began to study online to change my weaknesses into strengths i.e. my English speaking was once my Achilles heel, but now it is construed as one of my biggest strengths when it comes to University presentations.

Emulation: I started to emulate “boxers”. The way boxers work hard, dedicate themselves to their craft, show perseverance in each boxing match, and manifest the urge of staying at the top. Thus, I wanted to do the same mentally by slogging, dedicating and persevering to the max within the purview of my studies.

Role Taking: I took the role of being a fighter, whereby I withdrew myself out of my comfort zone and countered all the hurdles that were waiting for me to be dealt with.

Practical Accomplishment: Hurdles which I faced, helped me big time to burnish myself and also create the urge in me to stay at the top, no matter how tough the adversity could be.

Validation: Whatever, I’ve learned I used to apply it in my daily life in order to unravel the obscurity that previously existed in the past.

Anticipation: to deal with the exams, I used to make a strategy apart of exam preparation in order to perform better in the exam.

Also, the learning motivations stem from my need to know about something and as and when there was a gap between what the thing is or how it should be. Such things trigger me to know about something.

Accept Responsibility blame no one:

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Historically, I used to blame people as and when any anticlimax transpires, but after my reinvention I took full charge of my life and didn’t blame anybody for anything, as I used to call myself a movie director who can direct his own destiny or movie.

I learn anything I want to learn:

As I discussed earlier, I had weaknesses that were hampering me big time to forge ahead, but I didn’t retreat and put a lot of passion into my work to make things more enjoyable. How can I make things enjoyable? As and when I get jaded with books and magazines, I used to learn via youtube, daily motion or other digital ways of learning.

Many students mock my ways of learning, because they tried the same modality of my learning, but they couldn’t make anything out of it. They do not realize that everybody is different; my way of learning couldn’t be flexible enough to be universally applied among all students.

True understanding comes from reflecting on your own experience:

It’s hilarious when I look back and recall those memories when I used to cram books and tried to make anything out of it. One hour of learning seemed like a baptism by fire; in contrast, now I love studying new things because of my passionate belief of seeing myself a better man in the future.

I have a legacy that prompt me to slog my guts out and whenever I feel complacent after achieving something exceptional, I recall my values to stay on the course and the hunger that once arose, yet to be satiated, period.

In conclusion, it’s worth mentioning that one shouldn’t overlook his or her legacy. No matter, how hard the time could be how much you suffer, as long as you learn something from it and it acts as a catalyst to prompt a shift from what you were to what you actually become to date. It is the blessing of providence that actually make that change happen; one can only develop an intention for a change in life, and the rest will be performed by God. All in All, after my life’s transformation, I was called as an exemplary individual, who was nobody in the years gone by, but now they took inspirations from me to keep themselves on their toes. It’s hysterical to mention that the transformation that I made from an infantile careless young individual to mature sophisticated student of Bahria; is something that I can’t forget by knowing myself to the highest degree.

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