Travelling the world

If I were to write a personal blog, it would be about my love for travelling the world and becoming a pilot. Ever since I was young, I always dreamed of just travelling the world. The reasoning for my love towards travelling the world is because I grew up in a family where constantly my dad was travelling the world for job meetings. 

Why do I love travelling the world? 

It started when I was young, I always had to say goodbye to my dad whenever he had job meetings overseas, I would eventually keep begging my dad to let me go to the meetings overseas so I can adventure the world. Eventually, I got to fly to countries like France, United States, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, Greece, and Jordan, hopefully I can travel to more countries soon. 

Why do I want to become a pilot?

From all these experiences I had and all these times on plane rides that sometimes took 7 hours, it made me fall in love with airplanes and wanting to become a pilot. I started looking up how planes functions, airplane videos for example Toronto to JFK which was just someone recording their flight they had. All these just made me want to become a pilot even more, becoming a pilot would also allow me to fly around the world for free. You may ask why for free? Usually when pilots fly, they need to rest in that country they landed in for a day, so the airline company gives the pilot a free hotel room and even activities in that country if they would like to do any. 

However, I know that while my dream is to become a pilot and travel the world, I know it wouldn’t be fair for my future family to not see me around all the time because the job would need you to always be flying out the country and across the world. 

After I graduate university, I will be taking off a whole year and just travel the world. I am currently saving up so I can achieve this dream, I want to travel the world with my friends for a whole year. I know my love towards airplanes would make you think I would like to travel in airplanes but no, I want to arrive in Europe obviously with an airplane but then travel Europe in a car. Travelling in a car would allow me and my friends to explore all the local restaurants and places. With local places usually there is more to do and more hidden stuff than big cities, it is 100% a better experience than just going to big cities. 

What would I include in my own blog if I were to write one?

If I were to have my own blog, I would share all my adventures. I would upload daily about my journey across Europe with my friends, I would also share all my local experiences from food to any hidden places that might not be known by the public or on the internet. I would also blog about airplanes and maybe teach people how they function. 

Am I even a good listener?

I’ve been fooled by society, my whole entire life I thought of myself as an amazing listener. However, after reading the article “What great listeners actually do” written by Jack Zenger, this changed my entire perspective on what a good listener is. I do not consider myself ana amazing listener anymore, I would say I’m a border line decent listener after reading this article. 

In the article “what great listeners actually do” straight away it tells us about what people in today’s generation think of what you need to do, to be a good listener. As we all know, most of us when we are listening tend to say “mmmm” or nod our heads to make our storyteller know that we are listening. However, this is wrong, but while it is the wrong way of being a good listener it is still effective. To give you an idea of what you need to do to be a good listener, Jack Zenger tells us in the article that a good listener would engage in the conversation making it a two-way dialog. Another thing a good listener does is that they make the environment safe by supporting the other person, also be able to make challenging assumptions but not in a negative way, good listener also needs to be able to make good suggestions. Lastly, Zenger tells us about the six different levels a listener could be described as. 

After reading this article, I know for sure that I am not the amazing listener I kept telling myself. I lack some steps from the levels Zenger had told us about. For example, in the first level a person would need to create a safe environment which I do. However, when it comes to level two, I can say that sometimes I would be on my phone or distracted in some kind of way but still listening, I do not mean it any rude way, but in some instances, I listen better when I am maybe fidgeting with something or just scrolling through my phone. Furthermore, on level three I do sometimes struggle on it, on this level it is encouraged that the listener is understanding the full story and can ask questions. occasionally, I might not understand the story and I get scared to ask any questions about them possibly repeating it because I think that they might get annoyed especially if their maybe already annoyed or sad. On level four, it is required that the listener uses facial expressions and gestures, I can say that I thrive in this specific level, not just me but a lot of people also thrive in this level because it’s easy and natural. Once again, on level five it is required that the listener understands the other persons emotions and feelings, I can say that I am also good at this level, I tend to understand what the other persons emotions and feelings are right away. Finally, on level six it is required that the listener asks questions that clarify assumptions, which could inject new ideas. I can say that I do sometimes lack giving good ideas depending on the story being told. 

After reading this article, I can happily say that I am a horrible listener, well I would say decent. Nevertheless, in today’s generation most people would consider me an amazing listener because I genuinely care about what people say and that’s why people tend to talk to me about anything they have going on in their life. Until this day, some friends I know from high school would still contact me and we would just sit there for hours on facetime while they tell me the story because they trust me with the information and know I’m a good listener in their eyes. I will, however, try to improve some other steps to make sure I get better at listening.

So, before I get to know more about you and how good of a listener you are, I was wondering from the description I gave above, would you consider me a good or bad listener, which levels do you think I should improve upon that can be effective? Now, I want to know now about you guys more, do you consider yourself a good or bad listener using the description I gave above? What level do you consider yourself at using the different six levels I provided above? Finally, which levels do you think you need to improve upon, this can be multiple levels which isn’t bad at all.

This isn’t my image but its super cute.

Get to know me

Hello everyone, my name is Ahmed Awawda. Currently, I am a second-year student (going into third year after the summer) at the University of Western Ontario and Majoring in BMOS. 

Where am I from?

 I am originally from Bethlehem, Palestine. Palestine is a pretty country to visit, I have visited it a couple of times so far and I hope I could visit it again after this pandemic. After tensions kept rising between Palestine and Israel, my parents decided to move Canada to give me and my brothers a better life and better education. When my parents arrived in Canada, they saw London as a safe place for me and my brothers. Almost all my life I had spent it in London Ontario, I attended Arthur Stringer for my middle school. However, when I graduated middle school and was about to go into high school, I had moved to New Jersey, United States. Moving to a whole different country with a whole different system seemed hard especially going into high school, you don’t know anyone because your new. However, I got over that by joining the school’s soccer team, this allowed me to meet new people right away, and until this day I still talk to my teammates and friends because they are like family. Being in Jersey allowed me to experience new things, for example American football is more competitive and fun to watch in the United States than in Canada. 

What are some of my favorite activities and why? 

Some of my favourite activities would be soccer and going to the gym. Ever since I was young, I always enjoyed watching soccer and only supported one team and till this day I still support it, the team is called Barcelona, I hope one day I can watch them play live. My other favourite and most important activity is going to the gym, if I don’t work out every day, I start losing motivation in studying, I try to always work out every morning to keep me positive mentally and keep me healthy. There are some days where I would miss a day of going to the gym and I wouldn’t be able to study at all, which would affect me and hold me back in some classes. 

What do I do as a full-time student?

As a full time, student at the University of Western Ontario, I try to balance university life, work life and personal life all at the same time. I take my studying seriously, but I also take my personal life serious as well, I go out when I have the time, but I also prioritize my studies when needed.  

Some of my greatest personal achievements 

One of my greatest achievements is being able to work at young age and make money. As of right now I work part time at a fast-food place here in London. The reason working is an achievement for me is because one thing I despise is for me to ask others for money especially my parents, so therefore I feel like getting a job at young age is one of my greatest personal satisfaction. Another achievement for me is being able to attend a university and being able to get my degree, this is because the whole reasoning behind my parents moving to Canada is for me to also get a good education so I’m hoping I can keep fulfilling their dreams. 

What will I do after University?

After graduating from western, I am hoping to be able to open an accounting firm, this allows me to accomplish one of my dreams which is to be my own boss. Fun fact however, my first ever dream job was to be a pilot, that unfortunately didn’t work out, because my parents think It would ruin my future if I were to have a family because I would be away so much, and the job is apparently dangerous.

What am hoping to accomplish this term?

During this term I hope to accomplish a lot that would help me succeed in my future job. My future job would require me to have leadership skills, communication skills, writing skills. Hopefully by taking this course I can achieve these skills because I’ve realized in first day of class that I lack a lot of skills that would hold me back from succeeding in the future. However, the most important thing I want from this term is to hopefully meet some new faces even though class is online I know we can get through it and be able to meet people and make connections that would last forever.