The question stared at me, the thick red Sharpie letters written across the board festered in my mind. I rolled the thought around in my head, wondering.

Do I have what I want in life? What do I even want in life?

Such a simple question, yet one I had never truly stopped to reflect upon. To the left and right of me sat Moroccan university students and my fellow University of Virginia peers.

In that moment I did not see our obvious differences, instead I saw twelve women all grappling with the same string of Sharpied letters. And thus began the four day Imagine workshop.

Over the course of the workshop we grappled with concepts ranging from marriage and self-esteem to money and work. We lifted each other up and found the silver lining in our qualms and worries.

As I listened to girls whose lives came in stark contrast of my own I was able to appreciate what I have in a new way, while also becoming conscientious of the parts of my life I can work on and grow.

A women's empowerment workshop facilitated by the High Atlas Foundation, “The purpose of the Imagine workshop is to enable participants to create the life they most want.” While this may seem like a lofty goal, over the course of the four days of reflection, growth, and inquiry a sense of camaraderie and strength was created among the group.

We entered as a group of 12 women, but we left as a group of 12 friends, supporting each other, and each with a much clearer vision of what we want from our lives and how we can achieve it.