The Best Way Out is Through

October 24, 2023       

    There are only a handful of things that life guarantees, and of them is that you are bound to run into some problems along the way. It is easy to get tripped up by the various challenges that life can throw at you, but one way to look at each hurdle is a new chance to learn and grow. You have to look around and ask what life is teaching you in order to understand what you are going through, because at times you win and at times you learn. 

    The  work I do presents the perfect opportunity to be very intentional in practicing and asking what life is teaching me. As a Public Defender, I often meet People at one of the most challenging points of their lives. A lot of what I do is helping them solve problems. Whether it is making a game plan to help them get connected to housing, treatment, and/or other services or figuring out how to piece together the full picture of what happened in order to advocate for them. Every single Client presents an opportunity for me to help them put together the pieces of the puzzle and for me to grow as an Attorney. It is hard not to sometimes feel overwhelmed, but I have found that when I lean into and embrace the challenges that come along, the more both myself and my Client get out of it. I often find myself learning just as much if not more from my Clients than they do from me. 

    I believe when you reframe a problem into a challenge or opportunity it really eases a lot of stress in your life, prevents you from getting frustrated and helps you grow. How many times does something come up that completely throws you off your groove and changes your mood? 

    How many times have you had an instance where something that maybe lasted 5 minutes, ruins the other 1435 minutes in the day. That is .35%. But sometimes it’s hard not to feel like that .35% runs the show. And that is the moment that a perspective change is really valuable. Life is too short to spend it thinking that the world is against you and that every problem that arises is negative. You would be surprised how many mountains you can move when you are in the right headspace. 

    This rewiring does not happen overnight. It takes time, patience and practice. It creates a harmonious relationship with the Universe that is well worth it and will change your life as you know it. Imagine not going into a frenzy over conflict, no longer being reactive to every instance something goes in a way different from what you thought it should. It is life-changing. It allows you to be more empathetic, and to grow as a person by understanding that not every alternative path is a set back but rather an opportunity to experience another route and gain from the journey.

There is a saying in Arabic:

‏ما كان مقدرا لك سيأتيك ولو كان بين جبلين

وما لم يكن مقدرا لك لن يأتيك ولو كان بين شفتيك

    When translated to English it means, “What’s meant for you will reach you even if it’s beneath two mountains, and what’s not meant for you won’t reach you even if it’s between your two lips.” And I often think of this saying when the bumps in the road that is life, because it reminds me to breathe, that we can get through anything that comes our way, and that we will grow through what we go through even if it looks different than we imagined. And that eventually, everything you face and overcome, makes the next hurdle in life much easier to jump over.

Professor Nas Yasin '20 is a first-gen Afghan-American Attorney with a history of service oriented work focusing on working with marginalized communities in areas from Community Organizing, Mutual Aid, Nonprofit work, to legal advocacy in various areas such as criminal law, immigration law, laws of conflict, domestic/international human rights and civil rights law. Her goals are to reduce barriers for those marginalized groups through advocacy, community building, and work supporting and centering their voices.