Your Voice: It takes courage to grow

Every beginner learned to be an expert by failing a few times. Every time we face a challenge we cannot immediately say, “I give up.” Nobody knew how to do basic things like walking, talking, or even eating when they were first born; everyone learned slowly, only through making mistakes.

At the beginning of our training at Aramco, we experienced hurdles that made us anxious, nervous, and afraid of failing. But we, too, learned through our mistakes to improve what we’re doing.

Heart pounding, palms sweating

For Maryam M. Alansari, before working at Aramco, the mere thought of standing in the center of a room and making a speech made her heart pound and palms sweat. After making a few mistakes and successfully overcoming her public speaking phobia, she was applauded for her communication skills and even asked to lead a tour for general managers.

Previously, Munia S. Alnasser had always preferred working independently. In the collaborative work environment at Aramco, however, her interpersonal dealings allowed her to see how invaluable it is to discuss and exchange opinions. Experiencing firsthand the enormous potential of a group’s synergy to solve problems has changed Munia’s perspective. She is now perfectly comfortable working in either a group or an individual setting.

An especially daunting task

Both of us undertook various, often challenging tasks during our training, including virtual presentations, which are so different from in-person presentations. One particular type of face-to-face presentation was especially daunting: We would for the first time be presenting to male students. Going from being used to presenting to a female audience, to then presenting to a male audience wasn’t an easy transition, but it taught us to persevere until it became natural to communicate with this new audience. Giving presentations also meant developing good management skills, learning how to handle participants, and ensuring everyone participates in discussions equally.

Without these challenges that came with our job tasks, we wouldn’t have grown personally or professionally. We are immensely grateful for both the hard times and the easy times during our training period, as well as the opportunities where we learned to let go of anxiety and nervousness. These opportunities almost always related to speaking in front of an audience. Accomplishing such things has given us a lot of courage and confidence.

Maryam and Munia are Jubail University College students majoring in English. They are completing their university internships at the Dhahran North Industrial Training Center.

Your Voice reflects the thoughts and opinions of the writer, and not necessarily those of the publication.