What happens when the future you spent years preparing for is no longer the future you are going to live? 

In the first Scroll of The Scrolls of Reflection, Zaib Shamsi explores ambition, identity, resilience and the difficult space between one chapter of life ending and another beginning.
 
Drawing from his own journey through more than five years in Applied Medical Sciences and Healthcare, followed by a major change in direction and a move into Biomedical Engineering, Zaib reflects on what happens when a path becomes more than a goal - when it becomes part of who we believe we are.
 
Why do we keep going when circumstances change? When does resilience become stubbornness? Why can changing direction feel like failure? And what happens to the knowledge, experiences and identity we accumulated along the way?
 
This is a reflection on pressure, uncertainty, personal change, starting again and the strange experience of grieving a future that never happened.
 
It is also the beginning of the idea at the heart of The Scrolls of Reflection:
 
Scars become blueprints, and the things we stay silent about are given a voice.
 
Initiation: Part I begins with the scar.
Part II begins with what remains.
 
What can you build when the original blueprint no longer fits your life?

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The Scrolls of Reflection Hosted by Zaib Shamsi, Biomedical Engineer. Exploring life through reflection, lived experience, human behaviour, science, engineering and systems thinking — from ambition, resilience and identity to failure, relationships, health, technology and the process of rebuilding. New Scrolls every Monday and Thursday. Scars become blueprints, and the things we stay silent about are given a voice. © Zaib Shamsi. The Scrolls of Reflection. All rights reserved.