At some point during my own applications, I found myself returning to a word I’ve known my entire life: inshallah. In Arabic, it means “if God wills”. I didn’t realise it at first, but the word simply became my way of surviving the pressure.

College applications tend to make a lot of people nervous. No matter what you do, it never seems enough – not your grades, not your extracurriculars, not your budget, and sometimes not even your background or where you come from. Whenever I filled in an application, I always had a few missing ‘boxes’ that I felt I needed to tick.

 

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I couldn’t find a place that checked all these boxes, and the stress kept me awake at night. That’s when I started reminding myself: inshallah.

This word – which appears in the Quran and is widely used by both Muslim and Christian Arabs – is not an excuse to stop trying. It’s the opposite. It means you do whatever is in your power first, and then accept that the outcome is not fully under your control.

I was raised believing that God is the best of providers, and that sometimes not getting what you want is a form of protection. Maybe at my so-called dream university I wouldn’t feel at home. Maybe it would hold struggles I can’t see yet.

Growing up as Muslim and Arab, inshallah has always been part of my daily life – said and repeated all the time, whether to reaffirm my plans, hope for the best for my friends and family, or when I am talking about my future. However, it is only now that I understand how grounding it can be. It reminds me how effort matters, but so does trust.

In a world obsessed with rankings, numbers and statistics, inshallah offers comfort and peace with uncertainty. It allows me to think about the future without fear. And during the college application process, that mindset makes all the difference.