Today we heard from Farah(one of my favorite speakers), the founder of CCCL right here in Rabat. She was genuinely one of those speakers you just don’t want to stop listening to. Her voice was mesmerizing to me. To sum her up she is engaging, funny, and the kind of person who makes you sit up straight and quietly question what you’re doing with your life. What stuck with me most was how unconventional her path was. She grew up being pushed toward the French route, the safe and already paved road, but she chose Arabic instead and carved out something entirely her own. She could have stayed comfortable and she didn’t. Hearing that made something click for me. The people who actually change things are usually the ones who chose differently or as some might say “go against the grain”. She also said something I haven’t been able to shake since. Just start. Don’t wait for the money or the perfect plan because that moment might never come. Coming from someone who built something so foundational from scratch right here in Morocco, it felt less like advice and more like a call to action. She genuinely made me want to be like her and she will definitely be another person that I gain inspiration from.

The energy that I got from her and our conversations carried straight into our team exercise and I think it showed. Without anyone assigning roles everyone just naturally fell into one, sketching, writing, pitching, and it all clicked fast. Our concept was Souk Shopper, a website to help tourists and locals actually navigate the souks with haggle guides, maps, trusted vendors, real leather and ceramics, good food spots, nightlife, and culture. This is basically everything you wish you had before wandering into the medina completely clueless. The best part was working alongside Moroccan university students who brought real perspective on what people actually need there. My group got a bunch of ideas from the girl Moroccan university student.Those students were also funnier than us and better at spelling in English, which I have decided might be a little embarrassing for me. Time flew by during this experience and I wish we could spend a longer day with them and work on more projects with them. Getting to something that felt very useful in one session with people I had just met felt like exactly what Farah was talking about. Sometimes you really do just have to start. Jumping in right away to something new.