Hi! I am Aina, an ordinary girl who always sees herself to be average in all things that she does, be it in academics or be it in socialising. As a child, I always perceived life as a scary place where we are bound by built-up rules, people’s perspectives and also expectations. This perception is what leads me to be afraid of trying out new things and going out of my comfort zone. Starting from my primary school up to my secondary school, I limit myself in everything and put myself in my own bubble that I created, so that I feel safe. But, growing up, I started to regret it. I started to regret the opportunities that I wasted, the experience that I gave out and the memories that I never have.

 

Fast forward, I graduated high school and got the opportunity to pursue tertiary education in one of the local universities in Malaysia; Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). At first, I thought that maybe I should just continue to be the usual me. But, things change when I look at other friends’ experiences shared by them. Frankly said, I do envy it and actually wish that it was my experience that is shared. Thus, I reflect on myself and make a decision to change with the hope that I would not have any more regret in my uni life. With that, I venture to lots of opportunities in the uni. I joined college activities, club and society events conducted or even faculty sessions. But I never feel satisfied because I joined only as an audience or as a participant.

 

Continuously looking for new things to satisfy my need, until one day I discovered AIESEC, an organisation in my university that is providing a platform for youth development. At first, I really doubt that I will be accepted because it seems like a really professional organisation that in my mind perhaps would look for a skillful or even experienced youth to be recruited, which is not me at that time. But, eventually after going through the application process which included an interview and all, I got accepted! With that, my journey in AIESEC and also individual discovery begins. I would conclude this journey to be very fruitful where I experienced a lot of up moments and also down moments. 

 

This journey has provided me with lots of experiences and helped me a lot in building up myself. Some of the experiences that I have collected are handling a crowdfunding campaign named ‘Zero Waste Donation Drive’, managing a project of education called ‘Speak Up’ as a project director, and this year challenging myself more in becoming the head of the department leading a total of 15 members. Thus to conclude this journey which I am still continuing, I would say that I am truly able to see the changes in me from an ordinary person to be an oddinary. ‘Dreams come true to those who truly want them’, as I envision the change, I know that I need to drive for it and hence this is how my transformation story is made.