14 Year Old's moment of realization

???Can a 16 year old live in a completely different country with an absolutely different culture ALONE? That’s what was said to me by an employee in the Royal Saudi Consulate General in Guangzhou. He was completely shocked and impressed while listening to me telling my story.?

????With all due respect to the educational systems and to those great people and teams that worked and still work continuously with full tenacity and persistence, but let’s be real here for a moment. In spite of all the great generations that were built and educated by the same system, although it’s not a perfect fit for our huge ambitions and expectations for the upcoming years especially when we have a promising and up-and-coming vision like 2030. I was just 14 year old at that time and on the grounds of what I’ve noticed in 2016 I’ve decided to step up my game and start beginning to come up with a future plan to shape my journey and to meet my own expectations and goals, first I had to prove my skills to everyone and I managed to do that by getting a scholarship from “MAWHIBA” to study in local international high schools after I finished my second year in high school, I decided to learn a third language, and I did a lot of researches to decide on what language should I learn, the Chinese language was the best option at that time, and I ended up traveling to Guangzhou, China.

?????Having a cultural shock wasn’t an issue thanks to my prior studies before visiting China, as the first time to travel without my family I was prepared to live alone, but after the first day on the campus, one of my tutors offered me to live with her parents so in an adventurous spirit I immediately accepted her offer and went to a huge residential district and lived in an apartment in a 2.5x3.5 room. Since the fact that the Chinese family couldn't speak a single word in English meant that I couldn't communicate with them without a translator app, mentioning apps I also couldn't use social media due to the blockage that was enforced by the authorities then, I was spending 3 hours on public transportation, it was always congested, crowded and beyond the usual. As a high schooler, it was quite hard for me getting used to the overall experience but aside from hating myself for choosing this experience over traveling with my family on their vacation, eventually, I managed to get used to it happily afterward, one of the things that were pushing me for doing my best apart from my family's support was the huge support and motivation that was given to me by the Saudi consul general in Guangzhou MR. Mohammed Al-Buraythin, later on after spending 2 months and completing the first level of the Chinese language I returned home here in Jeddah.

?????As I came back, I started to see the results of my adventure. I got huge recognition from my friends, family, and my society. This was demonstrated and expressed in a warmheartedness appreciation, I was being invited to give talks about my journey to inspire others, my father was proud of me, my school also made a brief video summarising my adventure, after publishing the video one of the producers of the television channel "Rotana Khalejia" saw the video and contacted me, all of sudden I was being interviewed on TV and aired all across MENA, a couple of months later in the quarantine phase I started to lose passion on continuing learning Mandarin and after a lot of consideration and reviewing the situation I decided to end my journey with learning the Chinese language, and look for new challenges.

???? If I've learned anything from this tremendously wondrous experience, it is to never hesitate in going towards my goals and dreams, life is all about experiences which is why we have to take bold steps throughout our lifetime. After the quarantine, I decided to join the world of work and with the help of my past knowledge and connections, I was able to find a job in sales & marketing specifically in a real estate “Hajaj & Associates”. I was assigned to be in charge of the units' presentation on the construction site at our multi million project “Mojan Village”, that was a part of “Sakani” one of the housing ministry’s programs. I also attended meetings where I spoke about our sales strategies and the frequency of customers visits. And now I started a new journey with the wide spreading and aspirational tech start-up “Floward”, they’ve succeeded to achieve unattainable goals since the launching in 2017. My journey will continue, hopefully toward my intended destinations.???

?????Having goals and setting strategies to achieve, Is not limited to the big institutions or the government sectors. it can be implemented by anyone even for a 14 year old, I would like to address my voice to every student, to reach the point where you're are capable of figuring out what you truly want to do in the near future or even to figure out how you can reach your intended goals it mostly depends on how you reflect yourself, you should set both long term goals and short term objectives. You also must constantly be ascertained of your beliefs and morals, this is how I was raised.

Fawaz Wael M. Turkistani.