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- Year Of Graduation: 2022
- College/University: Brooklyn College
- Major: Psychology
What do you do for a living, or how are you supporting yourself right now?
Right now, I’m working as a cashier at a local supermarket. So far, it’s pretty normal. Usually, if it’s the morning, things are pretty slow, nothing’s really happening. It’s mostly toward the afternoon when things start to get a little busy. A lot of people come in, and managing that can be a bit of a hassle.
Can you tell me about your experience finding a job after graduation?
So, the original plan from 2022 to early 2025 was to get into medical school, but I had to take gap years because there were a lot of parts of my application that were missing. I didn’t have any volunteer experience, and I needed to take a few more classes before I could move forward with the whole process.
The rest of 2022 was just me taking whatever classes I needed so I could prepare for the MCAT and everything else. Then, in early 2023, I went traveling for a bit. I went to my home country, Pakistan, after about 17 years of not being there, and that was quite an experience.
When I came back, I went full throttle, trying to do everything. I got a volunteer gig at a local hospital, working in the ER weekly, helping out nurses, doctors, whoever needed it. While I was doing that, I was also studying for the MCAT, which was basically a part-time job in itself.
I took the exam in 2023 and scored on the lower side, so I decided to reattempt it. I took an additional gap year to prepare. From late 2023 to June 2024, I focused on studying, and when I took the exam again, I managed to bump my score up a little. I talked to an adviser, and she told me, “Just apply. Go for it.”
So, in the summer of 2024, I spent my time sending out applications. From fall 2024 to spring 2025, I was mostly waiting for interviews and doing whatever I could on the side. I got my decision in early June. I got into a school in Florida, but I turned it down.
Why did you choose your undergrad major, and why did you end up ultimately changing your path?
It was a childhood dream at first, but when I think about it now, I realize it wasn’t that being a doctor was the dream. The dream was to help people, and being a doctor just seemed like the surefire, ultimate way to do that.
Obviously, I had my parents’ support. They pushed me toward it, and I’m grateful for that. But at a certain point, which was when my father had major surgery back in November of last year, that experience really made me think. Like, “Okay, I need to understand what it is that I want out of life, what my priorities are right now.”
I’m an only child, so I’m really the only thing that connects my parents to the world around them. They rely on me heavily. They support me, and I support them in whatever way I can. And as you know, medical school itself is a massive time investment, and it’s a financial investment too.
My father kept telling me that everything was fine, that everything would work out, but deep down, I knew this wasn’t something I wanted to do. I felt like there was something else out there for me. I don’t regret it. I don’t regret turning away.
What does purpose mean to you? Do you think you’re living a purpose-driven life?
I believe everyone has a purpose in life. It could be anything, whether it’s making money, pursuing a title, or something else entirely. Your purpose is whatever gives you that sense of fulfillment.
For me, my purpose is to truly build a life for myself, something I can look back on and say, “Yeah, this is something I made with my own hands.” It doesn’t have to be the most glamorous thing. I’m a simple man. I don’t need fancy cars, big houses, or shiny things.
If I can look back and know that through my own effort I forged this, that I made something real, that gives me fulfillment. That gives me satisfaction.
What’s your biggest struggle right now? What led to it, and how are you moving forward?
My biggest struggle right now is really just determining who I am and what it is that I want. I definitely want to do something where I can help people, but I guess my priorities are shifting now. It’s less about putting others first and more about putting myself first. Not to say that I don’t care about other people or that I don’t want to give back to my community, it’s just that I want to make sure whatever I do, I’m getting something back from it. That I’m not wasting my own effort.
What do you want to spend more time working on, either personally or professionally? What’s stopping you?
Self-confidence. I definitely want to be more sure of what I’m doing. I want to have that confidence in myself because I’ve gotten more comfortable with uncertainty, understanding that some things just don’t work out, and that’s okay.
I’ve tried many things. At one point, I even tried becoming a police officer, but that path didn’t pan out. So it’s like, “Okay, that may not work, and that’s fine. Let’s look at other things, other options.” You never know what might click, what boot might fit your foot. You never know. It’s always worth keeping yourself a little bit open.
How do you define being a successful person?
For me, success is being content with where you’re at. It’s not about comparisons. Every time you see someone with, say, a nice-looking car, it doesn’t bother you. You just think, “Eh, I’m happy. I’m happy with my Prius. I don’t really want that, I don’t really care about it.”
That contentment, inner contentment, comes from self-confidence, knowing what you want, and knowing who you are. A successful person is someone who doesn’t need to flaunt things to other people. They’re just happy to exist with what they have.
If we traveled three years into the future of your life, what do you want to achieve? What would you hope has changed?
I definitely want to have a clear path, working toward the new career I’ve decided on for myself. And just being happy, being happy with what I’m doing, being happy with myself as a person. That’s really what it’s all about. That’s all I want.
What’s the biggest lesson or piece of advice you wish you’d known earlier?
Don’t try to live a dream that others carve out for you, but also don’t live a dream that you carved out for yourself too rigidly.
I’m not saying a person shouldn’t dream of the life they want, the ideal life, but they have to realize it’s never going to be one-to-one. There’s always going to be something missing in that perfect picture you painted. You may not get every single thing.
It’s really about being content once you get most of what you want. If a couple of things are missing, it’s okay. It’s not the end-all, be-all. That just means you can either grow more to achieve those things, or maybe they just weren’t meant to be.
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