Shaiza Qayyum's blog

Sometimes, the smallest of things can make a big difference in the way you think. It may be someone’s laughter, or someone’s tears, someone’s hopes, or someone’s fears.  You can’t predict that moment, and that’s the best part about it. It’s the unpredictability that makes that moment better than anything else.

This past week, I’d been really low. Being a fresh graduate applying for higher studies, I was in the ultimate state of confusion and uncertainty that is part and parcel of post-grad life. I was unsure about my opportunities, worried about my future, and impatient about every little thing. Hence, I sought refuge in one of my favourite places in the world – the oncology ward at the Children’s Hospital in Lahore. I’d spent a lot of my time with children suffering from cancer, and they’d always given me inspiration and hope.

Have you ever had the feeling of being overwhelmed because you got more, much, much more than what you were expecting? Well, I hadn’t, till I came for the World Bank and IMF Annual meetings.

Usually, any long, monotonous sessions would lull me to sleep, but somehow, I was wide awake in every session that I attended, despite being jet-lagged and sleep-deprived! Be it the youth capacity building session with the IMF officials, or getting a chance to mingle with the IMF sponsored youth leaders and CSOs, the learning only in the first 5 hours of the meetings was phenomenal. I must confess, my mind was boggled, and I felt a little dizzy, either due to sleep-deprivation or due to the information overload, I can’t truthfully say!

It wasn’t until the second day that things came back to normal. Maybe it was the jet lag wearing off; maybe it was the fact that all the other World Bank youth delegates had gelled in so well, as if we had known each other for ages, but there was something about the place that started feeling like home.