My Journey

My name is Mohammed Akonda and this year's theme, conviction of courage, means a lot to me since I can relate to it many times in my life. Finding courage helped me grow into the person that I am today. Having faith in Allah allowed me to face many obstacles in my life, demonstrating how mindset is key.

When I was younger I always had self doubt in many situations. I wouldn’t even attempt to try to do something very successful since I did not have the courage to do so. This prevented me from accomplishing many things. However, I turned that pessimistic mindset into an optimistic one. I realized that if you have a goal in mind, and you want to optimize the possibilities of achieving it, you need to have no ounce of self doubt in you. Having faith in Allah and being courageous will allow you to go beyond levels of success.

We all know high school is a tough time with all the load work. I used to believe that I won’t be able to balance school work, working shifts, and responsibilities all at once. However, my conviction in courage allowed me to successfully do everything while managing my time. If I had self doubt, I would have never even tried and would never know how it would turn out. Sometimes in life, you need to take risks. Having courage means you also need to have self confidence in yourself and what you are able to achieve. Some may think that you will not be able to achieve something, whether it is out of jealousy or anger, but it should motivate you to work harder and prove them wrong