Never let the society tell your worth!

This story of an inspirational woman in my life is extremely close to my heart since it belongs to my aunt. We belong to a very humble background, where woman are only encouraged to settle down as early as possible and men are the sole bread-winners of the family. Its just how the culture has embedded this trend within our society, since the beginning. But throughout my story, you'll realize why shattering the norms is important in today's society and why ones inability to achieve their dreams shouldn't be --- " don't do it since it goes against the cultural norms and since you'll be a shame to the family's honour"

My aunt, since the beginning, was an exceptionally talented girl. Who not only excelled academically but her ideas of innovation within the Artificial intelligence field, shook every other individual around her. However, as soon as she turned 16 and reached grade 10, which is equivalent to high school in my country, she was forced to be married off to a guy who didn't even see the face of school in his entire life, hence extremely illiterate and unable to earn enough to meet the basic needs of his family. Nevertheless, within three years of her marriage she got impregnated twice which made her life even worst! He used to torture her every single day and made her life unbearable. With two kids now, she never thought of escaping because she didn't have any skills, education or experience which would allow her to independently raise her two kids or even live on her own, neither did her parents wanted her back. She stayed and suffered for 10 years. However, she never stopped dreaming of going to university for her undergrad and grad school, she wanted to dream big! she wanted to change the face of Artificial intelligence in the modern world.

One day she decided to give it all up and move out to a woman's hostel with her kids. She started slow and steady, with enrolling in a very basic computer course at a nearby computing center. But one of the executive directors there saw huge potential in her. They insisted her on going to the city and enrolling in a community college course in AI. She performed exceptionally outstanding there and hence the city foundation (TCF) funded her undergrad degree in one of the top Universities in Pakistan where she is did her undergrad with high distinction. She secured an amazing job in one of the top IT firms in the country and is now applying for a fully funded masters program at One of the top IVY league schools in the US where she dreams on specializing in AI .

Her story gives me goosebumps every time i think of her. She went through hell through out her life but she never stopped dreaming and aiming for big. Her story taught me the importance of education for woman in all societal levels because no matter what situation one might have to go through, if they have the power of education, they don't have to rely on anyone and can independently work to fulfill all their needs and finances.

My family was also initially very resilient in sending me to university for undergrad, let alone grad school, but her story inspired them so much that my family not only supported me in getting my undergrad degree, which i passed with Distinction, but also sent me all the way to Canada, alone, to fulfill my dreams of attending one of the top Universities in Canada, on a partial academic scholarship. So any time i feel like giving up on my dreams, my aunt's story keeps me going.