He was my cousin; my older brother; my hero- a writer; an actor;an athlete. To his family, he was a son, a brother and a nephew and to his friends, he was the closest friend of all. To me, he was simply “who I wanted to be when I grew up.” I still remember him putting me, a four year old, on his shoulders and carrying me around our house for hours. I remember our trips to the zoo and to the puppet festival in Lahore every summer. When I was a little older, he would talk to me about the importance of honesty and integrity. He talked of his mother, a single parent, struggling to keep both her children in school anddrew on her life experiences to instill in me the importance of both empathy and perseverance.
His death came as a shock to us all. He was seventeen and full of life – optimistic and giving. The very hospital where he had volunteered every weekend for two years was the hospital he died in. Negligence at the hands of doctors and staff whowere supposed to do everything possible to save his life in fact cost him his - and changed mine forever. While the rest of the family accepted his death as the will of God, I struggled to accept this loss as a misfortune and started questioning the society we lived in and the basic systems (or lack thereof) we had in place to protect us from such injustices. It was not long before realization set in that we live in a country where poverty is rampant, custom is unconditionally law, and one’s own position in life, whether ideal or intolerable, is understood to be the way it’s ‘meant to be.’
I also realized that I had, until now, accepted “reality” as it existed. My cousin’s death changed that for me. I have learnedthat the problems inherent in our society will not end here. I have also learned that change is certain and, in fact, required for survival. I now believe that change is the meansto growth; at an individual and national level. The growth of developing countries like Pakistan, specifically through the strengthening of its institutions,is now in the hands of future leaders - us.This realization alone, however, is not enough. An education at the Lahore University of Management Sciences will provide me with the tools required to evaluate existing set ups and enable me to develop the formal skills required to identify and implement change.Having realized the value of change, my goal now is to become imperative in initiating it.