Zoya of Pakistan — The Girl Whose Hand Goes Up First
Zoya of Pakistan — The Girl Whose Hand Goes Up First
Zoya of Pakistan — The Girl Whose Hand Goes Up First
Age: 15 Region: Asia
Whenever a teacher asks for a volunteer, something remarkable happens in Zoya's classroom.
Everyone suddenly becomes extremely interested in their desks.
Pencils need sharpening. Shoelaces need examining. Pages that nobody cared about thirty seconds ago become fascinating.
Zoya's hand goes up.
Her friends have tried to stop this.
Once, when a teacher said, “I need a volunteer—” Zoya's best friend, Amina, grabbed her wrist and held it firmly against the desk.
Zoya raised the other hand.
Amina has never forgiven her.
People assume Zoya volunteers because she isn't nervous.
This is completely wrong.
Before speaking in front of the class, Zoya's stomach twists itself into knots. Her hands get cold. Sometimes her voice shakes during the first few words.
She simply does it anyway.
It wasn't always like that.
When Zoya was younger, she once sat silently through an entire lesson even though she knew the answer to almost every question. She was afraid of raising her hand and being wrong.
Then another girl finally raised hers.
Her answer was wrong.
A few children laughed.
Zoya watched the girl's face change. One moment she was smiling.
The next, she was staring at her desk.
Zoya knew exactly how she felt.
The teacher asked another question.
This time, Zoya wasn't certain of the answer.
Her heart began pounding.
She raised her hand anyway.
She was wrong too.
For one horrible second, the room was quiet.
Then Zoya shrugged and said, “Well, now we know two things it isn't.”
The girl beside her laughed.
Then the teacher laughed.
Soon everyone did.
And somehow, being wrong didn't feel quite so terrible anymore.
Zoya still likes being right. She likes it very much, actually.
But she has learned that courage isn't knowing the answer before you raise your hand.
Sometimes courage is letting people see that you don't.
So when a teacher needs someone to go first, Zoya's hand usually rises before she has enough time to talk herself out of it.
And lately, she's noticed something.
A few more hands have started going up with hers.
Her Dream: To become a teacher who creates a classroom where nobody is afraid to raise a hand, ask a question, or give the wrong answer.
Her Wonder: How many things people never discover they can do because they're too afraid to be bad at them first?
*****
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