Ziya. M

Performer, Student

I am a DP1 student at the Aga Khan Academy, Maputo. I study Economics, Global Politics and English as my higher level subjects and Biology, Mathematics and French as my standard level subjects. I used to live in India for 7 years before my family decided to shift Mozambique for business purposes. After graduating from AKAMAP, I intent to pursue Business Management in Europe.

I am deeply passionate about making the world a better place to live. I am someone who thinks about others well-being before my own, I always remind myself to making sure I help the world in the tiniest way because those little things matter more than we think they do. I like planting small trees, taking care of plants or feeding stray dogs. Street dogs have a special place in my heart and ever since I was 12 years old, I used to rescue street dogs from harmful surroundings, feed them, take care of them and protect them during rains or during any other natural disaster. I am passionate about making the world a better place to live by taking such actions.

Being a teenager of this generation, it seems hard to forget our roots and even harder to forget that we don’t have to fit into the shoes created by the others of this generation, you don’t have to lose yourself in order to “fit in”. Kindness is a gift given to us and yet we choose to be ungrateful about it or often choose to misuse it and underestimate it. All of us have baggage to carry, all of us are going through things we prefer not to show anyone and all of us are in this journey called “life” at the same time, so why should we be disrespectful and rude when we can be respectful and kind? A little kindness can remove a little weight off someone’s chest and although it is little, to that person it might feel like a lot because when you are under the pressure and you feel the weight of the world crumbling on your shoulders, during that time when someone picks up just one stone from the burden, it will not only give you relief from the pain but it will also give you the strength to continue on this journey. I strongly believe that if you have the power to pick up that one piece of stone instead of adding more then don’t misuse that power to make others suffer more, instead make sure to at least make one person smile everyday.

Dancing, Planning and organizing, writing poetry and literally pieces

My TED story started when I was a 13 years old living alone with my mother because my father lived in Africa as we had our family business there. I am a single child and I never had to go through any compromises because my needs and wants were always met and were always prioritized. It wasn't easy to convince my mother if I could get a pet. After few days of convincing, crying, and begging my family, we brought a little puppy home and Chuckles immediately became our little bundle of joy. Around 10 months later, we were travelling too much and there was no one to take care of him so unfortunately we had to give him up to few family friends. I was not okay with giving him up, I was not okay to let go of that piece of my life so I argued, I fought although I knew there was no way we could keep him but I didn't give up on him. He circled around me every time he saw me crying, he would rest his head on my feet to let me know he is there for me, he barked every time he felt like someone was yelling at me, he protected me from everyone even though he was a tiny little doggo. When this little doggo walked away, it felt like I lost a major part of my life. Initial few days, I used to cry all night long but after that, I got numb towards everything in life, I slept all day, never felt like doing things that used to interest me before, never felt like engaging with anyone and most importantly, all of this started affecting my academics. In the start it felt like it will get better with time but the more time I gave myself, the worse it started to get. In the back of my head I was aware it's depression but I refused to accept it because it seemed unreal, unreal how the sunshine girl of the family was no long making everyone laugh and smile, unreal how the "light" of the friend group wasn't able to see anything except darkness and most importantly, unreal how that girl was me. After a while of being in that hole, I realized that losing Chuckles was not where it started, it started long ago but I lost the energy to hide it after I lost him. Other aspects in my life such as my relationships with my friends, partners and family started falling apart too because I wasn't able to put in the efforts and was not able to communicate about my issues either. After being stuck in that loop for years, suffering alone for years, after attempting to end my life multiple times, I decided to tell my parents and honestly I did not expect them to be this supportive but they convinced me into joining therapy. So here I am, after being stuck in that loop for over 2 years with self-harm, countless anxiety attacks and sleepless nights taking a step towards getting better. Giving life another chance wasn't easy but knowing that they are people who cried for nights because I told them I tried to end my life, made me realize that there is more to life other than this darkness and hollowness. To all of us fighting demons inside us, let's not give them a reason to win and find the light after winning against them.

I have a good profound ability to connect with the audience by sharing a piece of mind, not many people are aware about this because I had stage fright whenever I was asked to speak in front of audience that consists of more than 10 people but now when I look back and think about it, I am more confident than I was a few years back, I am confident that I can touch the audience's soul through my words if I was given that opportunity. Public speaking and poetry has always intrigued me but due to several reasons I always dodged the opportunity of presenting my skills in either of those aspects.