Steemit Community,

Hello my name is Saed. I come from a small town (actually considered a village) in Ohio. It is one of those towns where when people ask "Where are you from?", I reply with several larger towns around the area. When finally the person who asks have heard of one of the places I rattled off, I will typically reply with "Yeah I'm about 30-45 minutes from there". I think this conversation my hold similar to those who have embraced the small town living!

After graduating from my high school, I knew I wanted to see more than just Ohio. I have been fortunate enough to have parents that instilled a sense of open-mindedness within me at a young age. My father being Jordanian and my mother being Taiwanese really made for some cool and unique family vacations! Being exposed to essentially three different cultures throughout my younger life, I would like to say it helped cultivate my curiosities more. It allowed me to realize that there are many perspectives and universal truths for everyone.

I was proud to be accepted to a university in Pittsburgh, PA where I am currently study pharmacy. I am expected to graduate the year 2020, which is scary but also exciting. Scary because time is really flying (it's almost 2018 - wow!), but also exciting because I do have much more I am hoping to learn in life.

Personal growth is a huge concept to my being and something that I hope to be able to spark in people. Everyone ages, but in terms of mentality many do not grow in correlation with time. This is NOT a bad thing! I sincerely believe a major necessity in life revolves around an individual's happiness, if you are happy and not being negative or expressing a debilitating demeanor to those you encounter, then please carry on! For me, I strive to be happy, and as I grow and experience more things, I have been able to be aware of many flaws in some systems that downstream bring much unhappiness to those affected. I do not think that I personally can make a difference in changing how things operate, but I do believe through like-minded individuals, collaboration, teamwork, and overall transparency can go a long way. I would like to think that a majority of people on steemit are more open-minded in some ways for this is not necessarily a 'Twitter' or 'Facebook', it is a pretty unique and very cool thing!

I would love the opportunity to learn from the community what event, action, book, mentor, etc in their life was able spark some sort of transcendence into their more mature selves.

For me, I cannot necessarily attribute it to one thing - but more of a combination of things. For example, upon graduation I worked as a janitor for two summers full time at my village schools. Cleaned lots of boogers and gum from underneath desks, but overall was given a greater appreciation for custodians and those working in sanitation - it is hard work. Since that job, I have tried to secretly go out of my way to thank janitors for their work and keep a relationship with the janitors that I come in contact with regularly.

I also worked as a cashier at a Save-A-Lot, as well as a Server at a pretty up-beat/high-paced brunch restaurant.
These jobs have given me much perspective, as well as the people I have been fortunate enough to meet along the way.
Currently I'm interning at an independent pharmacy and am learning a lot, which I am grateful for.

It would be cool to learn from your experiences as well! Brag about yourself and your accomplishments, I encourage it on this post. We should be humble but hungry, but sometimes recognition is relieving at times. I am hoping to be an extremely active member in this community. I look forward to hearing from you all!

Much Love