Growing up with my family's restaurant has prepared me by learning from the different opportunities I have experienced throughout the years. From the young age of 11, I learned how to waitress tables I have learned how to deal with positive situations as well as negative, success and failure - I feel as if I'm ready to face my future and all the obstacles that come my way. My family has prepared me for the future and the problems I will have to face including racial conflicts I might endure. My school prepared me more than enough for cultural/racial insensitivity in the future. I attended a predominantly white school and they always had a hard time accepting me, so I learned throughout the years to develop a thick skin and how to deal with conflicts between adults and students including racial/cultural issues. Being in the restaurant business from such a young age as well helped me develop the coping mechanisms to deal with what I dealt with in school and public environments. As I grew older, I was handed more responsibilities in our family restaurant. I rebranded our restaurant which included creating new menus, handling website design, social media management, interior decor, creating flyers/coupons, and so much more. I was only 13 and doing all of this with no experience whatsoever, this really gave me all the confidence I needed to pursue what I dreamed of. I decided at the age of 15, I have the knowledge, the motivation, and the passion for this, I need to branch out. So then I started on my journey of making a name for myself, branding myself as a digital marketer - at the time I didn't really know what I was doing but I knew my goal. I had to find a small business and provide my talents to it, I wanted to help a local business achieve its goals with my skills in marketing and advertising. After countless emails, phone calls, and letters, I finally received an answer. Hello Sunshine Yoga. The one place that gave me a chance when I felt hopeless and even thought at one point if I should give up. The owner welcomed me and my skills with open arms, she was delighted with my vision and what I was aiming to do. I still work with HSY today and they are the reason for my ongoing passion for digital marketing but mainly for helping local businesses grow. Fast forward to today and here I sit, with my own website containing my portfolio and services, having 4 clients and working with 2 currently, providing for my family with as many side jobs as I can, and just working as hard as I can to pursue my passion. As you can see the values, morals, and lessons I learned from my family's restaurant, is what led me to where I am today. If I didn't work and grow with my family's restaurant, I would be nowhere and especially not an aspiring Digital Marketer/Social Media Manager. I hope it's clearly seen that I am a hardworking person, I strive for success, and I will not stop working until I reach my goal. Whether it be for my family's restaurant, for my clients and making their businesses grow, or for my education- I always keep going for my future more so for my family. They are the reason I have so many opportunities including an American education - all I do is for them.

I believe life has prepared me by learning from the different opportunities I have experienced throughout the years. I have learned how to deal with positive situations as well as negative, success and failure - I feel as if I'm ready to face my future and all the obstacles that come my way. My family has prepared me for the future and the problems I will have to face including racial conflicts I might endure. My school prepared me more than enough for cultural/racial insensitivity in the future. I attended a predominantly white school and they always had a hard time accepting me, so I learned throughout the years to develop a thick skin and how to deal with conflicts from adults and students including racial/cultural issues. My personal definition of success would be someone who has reached a place where they are happy and confident with the area they've reached; where they believe they are following their passion and love what they do, they are bringing change and influence to the world. Success isn't just money, the world has made it seen that piles of money are what makes you successful. In reality, your personality, your overall being, and how you are as a person are what determine whether or not you're successful. For me, success will be when I am truly happy with what I am doing in my life, I am able to give my immigrant parents the life they deserve as well as myself, I am able to see the world and learn all the things I don't know of. In 20 years from now, I see myself in my own company's building as a CEO. My company is a digital marketing company where we help our clients create new traffic, leads, and sales. My company will help in rebranding companies, website design, social media management, and much more. I also see myself opening my very own gallery because art is a passion of mine, it's a dream I've had for years and I will fulfill it in the next 10 years. Another objective I have for myself in the next 20 years, is owning my own clothing company, Modeste Co.; I see myself doing this sooner than 20 years as I already have a business plan laid out for this. It will be a modest clothing company specifically geared towards women looking for modest clothing either for religious or personal reasons. Modeste Co. will carry Muslim wear as well such as abayas and hijabs- being a Muslim myself I found it hard to ever find Muslim-wear and modest clothing.

Growing up, I felt like a bit of an outcast throughout most of my school career — nor does it help that I’ve gone to a predominately white upper-class school since the age of 8. Where I went to school, everyone made sure to let me know I didn’t belong there. All the kids thought my name wasn’t “normal” and changed my name to “Mary”; the teachers, never knowing how to pronounce it either, would just say what they wanted — I’ve been called Maria, Mara, Mariah, Mora for years now. It could sound like a minor inconvenience to anyone who hasn’t experienced such situations, but little things such as this leave big marks on lives. I remember girls making fun of my dark thick curly hair, which prompted me to cut my hair — I wanted it to look like their perfect blond thin hair; or being made fun of for the hair on my body constantly, it forced me to attempt at shaving which ended in a disaster (I was 8 what could you expect..) I never took notice of my skin color when I was younger, I never thought of myself as different from the other kids until they started pointing all these things out. Until the bullying began. Growing older, I realized more and more that my ethnicity had a part to play, that I made people uncomfortable — because of how I look, because of where I’m from, because of my roots. Slowly the racial slurs/”jokes” began, having to laugh them all off and make a fool of yourself because well...what else did I know? The question was to think of a time and this consisted of more than one time — the majority of my life so far really is the “time” I’m referring to. I wanted to discuss what I have endured throughout my life and even to this day; bullying, racism, as well as feelings and emotions. The sadness as well as the perseverance. Now a problem such as this has never been able to be “handled” in my life as it is an ongoing challenge. But as I've gotten older, I've become more culturally aware of my Pakistani roots...I love my traditions, my ethnic features, my differences. Most importantly I love who I am and where I am from- I've learned to love the color of my skin and I know for a fact I wouldn't ever want to change.