Illuminate x Durham's Session Never give up!

Hi everyone! My name is Zahra Moosavi and I am a Grade 10 student at Dunbarton High School. Today, I had the pleasure to attend Illuminate x Durham’s regional conference. Here are my thoughts highlighting what I learned about from the very talented Alina Huang. We all know that leadership is when you step up and work and help with others completing your shared goal. Alina had taught us very beautifully that a leader has two different thoughts which are having a sage mindset which is having a positive and yes we can do it attitude, which we all should need as we all have to overcome things in order to achieve our goal. The second thinking is a saboteur mindset which is when we are annoyed or just feel like we can’t do it. What is really important which I think everyone should learn from Alina is that, even when we have something where we have completely given up or think it's too hard, we know that the end will be worth it. Take that difficult questions as “hmm interesting, we can do this!” Not everything happens in a straight path, we all have different obstacles, whether they are through grades or not being able to understand, at the end it matters about what we have learned, and that we can still reach towards our goals. I really enjoyed the activity on how two pictures can create an absolute complete new and unique idea and how everyone has a different and amazing perspective. What I have learned in this conference will help change my thinking, my actions, my thoughts, and my intentions in daily life through decision making or any daily lifestyle, as this positive mindset will help us reach our goal and keep a healthy mindset. As Alina has said “It does not matter about you falling, but it matters on how fast you get back up”.