When Dreams Meet Support

Yesterday marked the end of my second time as a mentor in ABLE Mentor. And if I am honest, I am not leaving with the feeling that I helped someone create a project. I am leaving with gratitude that life introduced me to a wonderful young girl, and that together we walked a beautiful road.

From our very first meeting with Danaya, something simply clicked. We found each other quickly and became a team quickly. There was no sense of mentor and mentee, no distance, no ego, no importance placed on who had more experience. There was respect, trust and a natural desire to create something meaningful.

Danaya is only in 11th grade, but she already has impressive knowledge and interests in finance and financial literacy. The idea for a game that helps young people build better financial habits came from her. I brought something different: technical knowledge, experience in building digital products and a love for turning ideas into reality. That combination made us an incredible team.

From the very beginning, we both knew that what we wanted to create was big. Three months felt far too short for such a project, so our first goal was much more modest. We did not aim to finish everything. We simply wanted to show that we had worked, that we had laid the foundations and that the dream had potential.

Before the game, there was a journey

Before we reached the game itself, there was a lot of preparation: ABLE Mentor events and trainings, research, conversations, analysis and the gradual building of the concept.

We found our way of working very quickly. Often one of us would arrive with an idea, and the other would embrace it and build on it. I suggested that we survey future players to understand what would be most valuable to them. Danaya immediately got excited, and soon the survey was ready. Then we analyzed the results together and began shaping the project step by step.

Danaya created the lessons, tests and different situations through which players could strengthen their knowledge. Together we built the logo, design, rules and the overall feeling we wanted the game to carry. Somewhere along the way, an idea stopped being just an idea and started becoming something real.

Only after the mid-program event did we begin the true technical implementation. And somewhere along the way, something beautiful happened. Without planning it, without setting it as a goal, we simply became a real team. When that happened, things began to fall into place in an almost magical way.

When thoughts meet

There were moments when I would come with an idea, see Danaya's eyes light up with excitement, and together we would start building on it. There were also moments when I wrote down something we needed to discuss at the next meeting, and she would greet me with a smile and say:

Yes, I thought of that yesterday and I already did it.

And this happened again and again. Sometimes I felt as if we were thinking in the same direction: one of us reaching an idea exactly when the other had already begun bringing it to life.

We were not working as mentor and mentee. We were working as people who respect each other, complement each other and want to create something beautiful. Each of us brought something different, and that was exactly where the beauty was.

We used the newest technologies, artificial intelligence and a lot of human creativity. But the truth is that technology was only a tool. The people mattered most.

Of course, there were deadlines and a lot of work. There were days when both of us gave our best, yet somehow everything happened with such lightness that even we were surprised. Not because it was easy, but because there was trust, respect and real joy in the process.

And only a month and a half later

Only a month and a half after the technical work began, the game was ready.

Not partially.

Not as a demo.

Truly ready.

So when the final event came, people did not just hear about our idea. They could start playing and learning through it right away.

And this, perhaps, was one of the most exciting moments for us: to see how something that three months earlier existed only as an idea had become a real product, available to everyone.

And although I am very proud of what we created, the game will never be the most valuable thing I remember. It is simply the cherry on top. The real beauty was in the road: in the conversations, the trust, the respect and the joy of the process. In the fact that we never worked against each other, but always side by side.

I will never forget the excitement in Danaya's eyes when we went through the final version of the product together. The first version was good, but the final result was something entirely different. As we explored everything we had created, I kept hearing:

Wow, this is amazing!

And I think that was when we both realized how far we had come.

The small personal mission

I also had one small personal mission. Alongside everything else, I wanted Danaya not to forget to have fun. Because I believe dreams come true most beautifully when we enjoy the road.

Shortly before the final event, in a conversation with our wonderful coordinator Sasho, she shared that one of the most valuable things she had learned over those months was exactly that: to have fun.

In that moment I told myself:

That's it. I do not need anything more. If I managed to pass that on to her, then I have done my job as a mentor.

Because sometimes the most important thing we can give each other is not knowledge.

It is an attitude toward life.

Where the magic was

We began with the dream of simply showing that we had worked, because both of us knew how big the idea was and how little three months could be. We finished with a product that began helping people on the very day we presented it.

But if you ask me where the magic was, I will answer honestly.

It was not in the game.

It was not in the technologies.

The magic was in the fact that we found each other so quickly. In the fact that we respected each other. That we had fun. That we believed in one another.

And perhaps most of all...

The magic was the two of us.

Thank you, Danaya!

And thank you to ABLE Mentor for giving me, for the second time, a truly unforgettable experience.