Alumni Feature – Abigail Havora
Written by: Abigail Havora, with an introduction by The Voice Inc.
Posted on: 30 March 2019
We have the privilege of sharing our journey with Abigail Havora who is our sixth alumni feature, "The Avid Learner". Abigail is currently a final year medical student doing her rural block out in Finschafen, Morobe Province. She joined TVI whilst attending UPNG in 2010 and has been a part of our family ever since. Abigail was also recently awarded as a recipient of the KTF Archers Scholarship. It’s been a great pleasure watching Abigail's journey.
Here is her story and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Not a lot of people know this but I grew up as one of the “Ox & Palm Babies”. What was an Ox & Palm baby? My father worked for a good number of years at the Hugo Canning Plant at 15 mile, just a few minutes out of Port Moresby(POM). We grew up being some of luckiest kids in PNG tasting all the varieties of the Ox & Palm before they hit the shelves. From Red to blue to now orange and barbecue, yes! we were tried & true Ox & Palm babies.
Apart from the corned beef advantages, we lived our life tucked away in the outskirts of POM. We didn’t have cable TV, which panned out well for my brother and I. As kids, I usually enjoyed my own company, mainly nestled in books and the company of my brother and parents. I loved reading books but I never could read anything twice. As soon as I read a book, I never flipped back. I would read, learn the lessons and move on instantly. I applied the same to movies, once I started watching. If the story line (both book and film) wasn't enticing I flipped to the end and read the conclusion. I once attempted to read the whole set of the Britannica Encyclopaedia for Kids and finished successfully. When I wanted to do something adventurous, I would follow my brother to the river that ran through the back of the property and float down on Styrofoam with other neighbourhood kids. Those were the days! Young, maybe a bit wild and a little care free.
We commuted back and forth to school in POM normally and I enjoyed attending school. I joined netball and found the sport gratifying. I made sure I attended trainings sessions and the games. Apart from school, netball kept me busy on weekends and many great friendships were forged through netball. This was life for me so far.
I finished high school and got accepted into UPNG in 2010 where I started off in Science Foundation. This was an expected outcome. I had my heart set on going to Medical School to be a Doctor. I had always wanted to have a direct impact on someone’s life. At this point nothing was going to stop me but little did I know what fate had in store for me. This was my first year and the beginning my life outside parental censorship. On the other side in the city, and not secluded and nestled away in outskirts of 15 mile anymore. I was a freshman that faced everyday freshman challenges. These challenges I faced were the gruelling struggle to please my parents while trying to keep up with trending social themes – needless to say, my inability to cope with this dilemma overwhelmed me and left me without a sense of purpose. I felt this after my first year where I learnt I had almost flunked school. This was the biggest blow I had faced in my life! I didn't get the grades to go to med school and I almost scraped through the first year. I was demoralized, my confidence had peaked and my ego was down. It was as if I was trying find my way in the dark using a demagnetized compass.
Later that year in an attempt piece back the puzzles of what remained of my life, I decided to joined TVI. Not knowing what to expect or what TVI was about, I was reserved and skeptical - little did I know that my life was going to change forever. I loved the entire program from the very first session, which I can still vividly remember, on “Purpose”. What captivated my interest were that, the sessions resonated and reminded me of my forgotten beliefs and lessons I grew up learning from my parents.
By the end of the DREAM program, I was no longer the same, clueless, skeptical person that walked into TVI. I was no longer that person who wallowed in my misery from past mistakes. I came out from that experience, positive, optimistic towards life and its challenges and moreover I was driven with a sense of purpose to help others experience true freedom that comes from taking control our lives.
Having more control of my life and knowing who I truly was allowed me to test my preconceived limits. As I progressed through TVI’s leadership program in my subsequent three (3) years at UPNG, I exposed myself to hold leadership roles in and out of the spotlight, pushed the boundaries in creating first-of-a- kind events on campus and accomplished most of my personal goals, all in the name of “re-defining myself”.
TVI helped me change my limited perception on life and allowed me to know my self-worth. This became my new-found passion, to inspire others to know their self-worth.
I graduated in 2014 with a Bachelors majoring in Biology and minoring in Chemistry. I was then selected to join the Oil Search Graduate Program under the process engineering team. It was a blessing. The Graduate program was amazing and allowed me the working opportunity in one of the country’s leading oil & gas firms. I was in a competitive environment, competitive in a sense where I challenged myself time and time again to add a bit more effort or push my limits a bit more further in performance delivery.
To keep up my sense of purpose fresh, I enjoyed writing different types of lyrical poetry from odes to dramatic monologues. In 2015, one of my written pieces had caught the attention of a number of people and the opportunity to contest in the local Miss Pacific Islands Pageant (PNG) presented itself. Apart from it being another opportunity for me to further test my limits, I saw it as a good platform for me inspire other Papua New Guineans and People from the Pacific Region with my story so I took the opportunity and ran with it. With this being my driving force, I won the local pageant and later went on to win pacific regional pageant. The pageant blessed me with the opportunity to have access to engage with people from all over the Pacific and share my message on leading a purpose driven life.
It was like a ripple effect on my life. Soon after returning from the regional pageant I had made up my mind on a lot of things in life. My passion to inspire others led to me making a conscious choice to leave formal employment in the Oil and Gas industry to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor; I was already optimistic of what the future would hold.
It has been 9 years since joining TVI, I’ve been fortunate to receive the support and guidance that TVI has given me in finding myself and making the most out of life. Their support extended from group sessions and activities and one-on-one mentoring from leaders and founders of TVI. There is nothing more rewarding than to share with someone the secrets to unleashing their potential and TVI has done that for me and many others, I will always be grateful.
I have now come to realize we must always strive to have a positive impact in life, regardless of situations it may bring. I believe we must always leave a place better then what it was before.
I leave with a sentence which I feel best describes everything I learnt from TVI; “self-belief and staying focused makes all your aspirations in life possible”.