By Nayab Malik
Wardah Amir considers herself a “third culture kid.” She calls herself an American-born, confused Desi from Pakistan.
When this 22-year-old chemical engineering senior talks, she uses a mixture of English and Urdu words so it’s hard to tell where she’s from and that’s how she likes it. “I like to keep people guessing,” she said.
Amir was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States—and this is where her journey and love of travel began, she says. A year after her birth in Atlanta, she moved to Missouri, where she turned two; celebrated her third birthday in Michigan and then moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where she lived until she was eight years old.
“It’s [because of] my parents’ profession. They’re doctors, and they move around a lot,” she said.
At nine years old, she and her family settled on a tiny island in the Caribbean. To Amir, that was a “one year long vacation,” and seemed like “heaven on earth.”
“We had a pool and there was a lagoon behind the pool. I’d meet my schoolmates all the time because the island was so small. There was even a tiny mosque there,” she said.
It wasn’t until she moved to Pakistan a year later that she said she had a “life changing experience.”
“Before Pakistan, I had not seen any kind of human suffering. There were bomb threats to schools, the security situation was getting worse, and I saw how bad it could get,” Amir said.
That’s when I realized that life isn’t a fairytale, and you have to adapt to every situation you’re in. You really have to count your blessings, she said.
Amir has a secret passion for writing, which she indulges in by writing a few paragraphs here and there when she feels inspired. Going to Texas A&M University in Qatar was a difficult choice, one that she made to make her father proud.
“TAMU-Q has been scary and wonderful at the same time. If you heart’s in it, nothing can stop you. And that’s why the hardest thing for me has been finding my passion for engineering, especially when I’m somebody who likes to write,” she said.
“My life wasn’t planned out though for me to move to all these places. I didn’t think I’d be in an American university in Qatar,” said Amir. “But these opportunities do come up. And I believe you should go for them.”
Wardah has no definite plans for after graduation but she hopes to find a job, travel and simply “go with the flow.”