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 fate 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. It did not matter 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... my technical knowledge, my experience in creating digital products and my love for turning ideas into reality. And that exact 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. There were the ABLE Mentor events and trainings, a lot of 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. For example, I suggested that we survey future players to understand what would be most valuable to them. Danaya immediately got excited about the idea, and not long after that, the survey was ready. Then we analyzed the results together and began shaping the project vision step by step.

Danaya independently 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 began becoming something real.

Only after the mid-program event did we begin the true technical implementation. And then we started seeing how much we could achieve when two different perspectives meet and begin building on each other. The ideas that had existed only in our conversations started becoming reality, one by one.

When thoughts meet

There were moments when I would write 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.

Each of us brought something different, and that was exactly where the beauty was, because we complemented each other.

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. Both of us gave our best, yet somehow everything happened with such lightness that sometimes even we were surprised how it was possible to get so much work done in just two hours. And perhaps that was exactly what made us look forward to our next meeting every single time.

And only a month and a half later

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, in the trust, in the respect and in the joy of the process.

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. And 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. This is enough. 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.

And 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 trust, in the conversations, in the shared excitement and in the joy of seeing an idea gradually become something real.

And perhaps most of all, in meeting a wonderful person.

Thank you, Danaya!

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