I met the Lord Mayor Of Manchester

Hello friend,

I briefly mentioned this in my recent life update letter but here’s the full story, because it deserves its own post.

It’s been nearly three weeks since the event, and I’m still sat here feeling proud so I wanted to write this up properly. It’s a short one, so no audio version this time.

As you probably saw from the title… I met the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Carmine Grimshaw.

My school held a celebration evening and selected 90 students to attend. Each of us was allowed to bring one guest so I brought my mum.

It was a really hot day and we had to be in full school uniform, but the setup was actually pretty cool. Balloons, banners, lights the hall looked great, (Photos are below.)

Before everything started, Akeim Mundell, the Assistant Principal, came over and spoke to my mum. He told her how proud he and the staff were of everything I’ve been doing. The way her face lit up in that moment made me feel extremely happy

Then they called my name.

As I walked up to the stage, I felt nervous but excited. The Principal introduced me by saying that,

at 15, I’d already launched two businesses while balancing school. I was then given the Leadership & Service Award a moment that really hit me. It wasn’t just recognition. It felt like everything I’ve been building outside of school finally had a spotlight on it.

That night, I went home thinking a lot. I’m usually hard on myself telling myself I should be doing more, moving faster. But this reminded me that most people my age aren’t even thinking about their future yet and that’s not a bad thing. It just made me stop and realise I’ve actually done more than I give myself credit for.

And even though I’m always talking about what’s broken in the education system (and I still believe a lot needs to change), I’ve got to give credit here. My school didn’t just look at my school progress. They saw effort, leadership, and ambition and that matters.

So yeah, I’m sharing this to remind you:

You don’t need to wait. You don’t need permission. If you’ve got something worth building start.

Talk soon

Yousaf