Reem completed the IGCSE in May 2009 at WIS and then started her tertiary education in Egypt.
Finding my Ikigai
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” A question we are frequently asked since the moment we learn to speak. My peers often provided specific answers, “I want to be a marine biologist!”, or “I want to be a doctor!” Yet, it is a question I often struggled with.
I knew I was destined for something big, but what exactly? Phew, beats me! A few decades later, do I have an answer? Probably not. While teen-me may have felt frustrated with myself because I needed to make decisions about what subjects I need to take, which degree I need to apply to, etc. adult-me is full embracing this journey to find my Ikigai (ee-ki-gai), a Japanese concept meaning “the reason for being”, centred around what you love, what you are good at, what you can be paid for, what the world needs.
I was privileged as a child to be able to attend Windhoek International School. My parents sacrificed a lot in order to provide my brother and me the best quality education. A lot of my values and principles that I carry today have been embedded in me since my time at WIS, which I am absolutely grateful for. After finishing my IGCSE degree at WIS in 2009, I moved back to my place of birth, Cairo, to complete my undergraduate.
I was so excited to experience the big city life and the culture that I represented annually at the school’s international day. This is the time when I realised I am good at business studies and some of the highest earning jobs are in those fields.
Hence, I decided to pursue a business and finance degree.
While my time in Cairo was great, I witnessed the Arab spring which opened my eyes to a lot: mostly, that the world needs a fundamental change in how we do things and how we live, to ensure that everyone has a dignified life. This is when I started to realise that there is something missing … what positive impact am I making?
After finishing my bachelors and honours, I took up an academic career in lecturing and research while continuing to pursue my master’s degree. I thought to myself, this is it. I can have an impact on the youth and help influence them through teaching and sharing knowledge for the better.
Although it was extremely fulfilling and rewarding, being someone that is always intellectually curious, I wondered what is next? The idea of working at the UN always intrigued me. I felt that that is where the real change happened and where I can have a meaningful impact on building sustainable nations. Again, this was all thanks to the appreciation of sustainability that WIS instilled in me. Surely picking up litter every other Thursday at school was for nothing! I took up an internship at UNDP Namibia where I worked with some of the greatest minds and contributed to policies and programmes aimed at alleviating poverty.
Once that came to an end, I decided to go into the real economy, maybe the impact there will be even more fulfilling. This is when I landed at one of the biggest corporate and investment banks in Namibia and Sub-Saharan Africa where I now lead Strategy and can have a meaningful impact on the nation’s economic development.
During my time in the corporate environment, I experienced such an amazing and steep learning curve. The biggest “aha” moment for me, was that no matter your technical and scientific background, it is your values, principles and ethics that give you a push to be ahead of the pack.
I am grateful that WIS instilled in me the appreciation of the diverse cultures, social responsibility, sustainability, integrity, quality, curiosity and many more. I remember in one interview I did, I was asked if I appreciate diversity and my immediate reaction was “of course! I went to WIS!”
Did I find my Ikigai? Probably not entirely, but I am embracing the journey more than being attached to an outcome.