Growing up I spent a lot of time at the library, reading everything I could get my hands on and imagining myself on fantastic adventures, some of which I still remember.

Now, I earn my living managing the content side of a digital marketing agency, which mostly entails visualizing and creating gripping stories about the brands we work with.

I believe more than ever that language and art are the best forms of creative expression. So when a friend told me that she was going up north to volunteer at a school, I thought it would be the perfect chance to help children experience the joys of reading, unleash their imaginations, and ultimately make storytellers out of them.

My one month working as a volunteer with IEI Pakistan was no tea party in the mountains; it was challenging, sometimes even shocking to adapt to a lifestyle that was so severely different from the one I had always known. But given the chance, I would go back and do it again, and again, and again.

The reason is very simple: I have grown more as a person in that one month than I have grown in the past eight years of my adult life. I’ve learnt the value of immersive learning and the unparalleled joys of opening up the minds of a young generation. But most of all, I have learnt that the things we consider to be absolutely necessary mostly turn out to be things we can do without, and that happiness can be found even in a simple life as long as we spend it making a positive difference in the world.