Rahaf Almabaid - Academic Prefect

I would like to start with a little bit about myself.  I came from the Middle East and started here at Queen's in Year 11. Even though I heard words like “your English is so good” so many times since I was at the airport, I was speechless and I had no words to say on my first day at school. Well, except for the time I said hello back to my friend Tia who said it in Arabic first and made my first day feel great.

Since a really young age, I grew up watching Disney and Harry Potter, which is really where I started learning English before learning it properly at primary school. And being the only girl in my family, my parents wanted me to be bilingual and to have a passion for Science, so I became both quite early.

The transition from one part of the world to the other made me grow up so fast.  It made me understand how different everything is and how life is so difficult over in the middle east. But if there’s something that I genuinely appreciate out of all of the confusions that I’ve been through, is that I grew up experiencing the richness in both worlds. Entirely. Observing from both and adapting from both. It made me so flexible and open minded.

And I’ve never experienced what they call “ culture shock” struggles, but I still experience moments of discomfort at times, but these are good because it reminds me of how small I am on this Earth, constantly learning and eye-opening.

I’m hard working, I set high goals and I work for high expectations because I like being challenged, it’s a “now or never” mindset that keeps me going forward as I always remind myself that hard work pays off in the form of success.

I want to know at the end of each day that I was of use, within my capabilities, regardless of how small or big the impact was.

I want to know that I didn’t lose myself to my fears and insecurities, that I wasn’t bounded by my worries and my past experiences. And I also wasn’t held back by people’s assumptions and judgments. And I want you all to think in this way too!

Regardless of what you do, or where you go, I just want you to try out all the opportunities that come across your way at High School. Wholeheartedly.

Because right now, within all of us, lies all the strength and all the courage that we need to make this year, the year of becoming the best version of ourselves, of choosing ourselves, of worthiness and gaining what we deserve.

And along with all of the positive things that I mentioned, this year might also be the year of losing, of falling behind, of failing, and of coming undone.

But it’s okay! Because those things are also equally necessary for us to grow into the women that we need to be.

This year, we will be ready for both.