As a borderline hermit, I realized the best (and perhaps only) person I can dedicate this article to is someone I know very well: my roommate Sabrina Abu-Wishah. Thankfully, my roommate happens to be one of the most diligent, hardworking and impressive people I know.
The first impressive thing I learned about Abu-Wishah was that she never stops working hard. In high school, like many teenagers, she got her first job. Shortly before her 16th birthday, Abu-Wishah walked into a poke bowl restaurant with her mostly empty resume and assumed her first position. There was a lot about this job she did not enjoy; however, she found joy in it via her interactions with customers.
After almost a year of working at Aloha Poke, Abu-Wishah was looking for something new. Now, with her resume a little less empty, Abu-Wishah left her job behind the poke counter and found a job working as a swim instructor at Cogua Aquatics. For Abu-Wishah, there were very few things as miserable as working at an indoor pool while living in California. Yet, she was not discouraged — quite the opposite actually, as Abu-Wishah never stops working.
Shortly after becoming a swim instructor, Abu-Wishah decided she wanted more. This time around, she applied for a position as a hostess/busser at an Italian restaurant while maintaining her swim instructing responsibilities. Was that enough? Not for Abu-Wishah.
After almost a year of working as both a swim instructor and hostess, she received a position as a soccer coach at Next Level Soccer Training. Similar to working at Aloha Poke, she loved interacting with clients. She often references memories with the young athletes she coached, their personalities and songs they enjoyed listening to.
The summer following her first year at Fordham, Abu-Wishah not only maintained her three jobs at an indoor pool, a restaurant and soccer camp; she went on to find even more work. First, as a private swim instructor — using her strengths — and then as a private tutor.
If you’ve been counting, she worked a total of five jobs… at the same time. Forgive me if I am just lazy, but is that not insane? For emphasis, five jobs at once. When I met her she had worked three jobs simultaneously, and I was enamored by her ambition. Only a year later, she added two more to her already impressive and versatile list.
When reflecting on the experience, she shared that “it was liberating, in a way, it really is a different feeling owning money for yourself.” Abu-Wishah gained a sense of independence, and she yearned for more and more.
I have neglected to mention that while she was working three jobs in high school, she was a competitive soccer player. Abu-Wishah worked to be financially independent; however, she was confident that she was going to have a career as a soccer player. In her junior year of high school, she was committed to a D1 college as a center midfielder. Unfortunately, the summer following her junior year, she tore her hamstring playing in her club league. This injury led her to lose her commitment and reevaluate her life goals.
“It completely changed the way I looked at my future. I really thought I had a future in soccer, and education kind of came secondarily,” she said (while having maintained above a 4.0 in high school). “I always knew, soccer or not, I wanted to be a person who made some kind of impact in the world. After my hamstring, I had to rethink everything, the type of person I wanted to be since soccer wasn’t my outlet anymore.”
The Christmas after her hamstring injury, she received “The Book of Majors” as a gift, and was able to find a major that suited her: psychology.
Initially, she was interested in sports psychology, however, after arriving at Fordham her career path starkly changed. Within a few months of attending Fordham, Abu-Wishah found a new passion in philosophy and declared a second major.
“After I declared my philosophy major, I wrote a paper about nature versus nurture in serial killers and kind of became immersed in it,” she said. “I don’t necessarily understand it like I could sports psychology, but it was just so fascinating to me. I found myself trying to understand them, even though I could never agree with their actions, I was able to put myself into their shoes”
Abu-Wishah had set her mind to something new: criminal psychology. When imagining a career interviewing infamous serial killers, Abu-Wishah smiled and said, “my excitement to be able to do that is uncanny.”
Currently, Abu-Wishah has five jobs waiting for her when she returns to California, but she is still not satisfied. Therefore, Abu-Wishah applied to be a Ram Van driver. She said that, “I started Ram Van because I missed working. I know people always say working is miserable, but I think you can always find something to enjoy.” This is the type of person Abu-Wishah is; however, she is a realist, so she added “you can always enjoy the money too.”
Abu-Wishah was one of the first people I had met in my life who genuinely had a long-term plan, and truly made it sound like something real and tangible. In part, it was because she is authentic —she is exactly who she says she is and does exactly what she says she is going to do. In other words, watch out for Sabrina Abu-Wishah, because her ambition, along with her ability, is boundless. She is truly a force of nature.
When I asked Abu-Wishah about how she stays so motivated, so ambitious, she shared with me, “I think about the return, I know that what I am doing is what I am meant to be doing.”
