Atiqah Takes Manchester

On February 2015, i got a great news : i, Atiqah Zulfa Nadia, am accepted as a postgraduate student in the University of Manchester! One of the top 50 universities in the world (based on QS Ranking for 2014/15). I’m truly blessed. Taking a master degree has always been one of my life goals since i was in my bachelor study. Success, to me, is not a thing that comes instantly and here’s a bit of my story..

I’m now at the age where i want to achieve many things, where i want to show my ability to do this and that, where i have the will, the time, and the energy to turn all my dreams into reality.

However, i got to choose one, make it as a priority, and focus on it. One at a time. For me, the hardest thing to decide was whether to seek for a new job or to pursue a master degree. It’s quite hard to stay where i was back then when most of my friends were moving around and finally got a job that suit them best. But then, i chose my priority : to take my master degree in 2015. And it’s not negotiable. A goal -or a dream- should never be negotiable nor adjustable.

I took an IELTS preparation class for 2 months. I simply lost one holiday during the weekend because the class was held on Saturday from 9 am to 4 pm. In the middle of the way, i applied for a vacancy in one of  the government offices. I was invited to join the selection but it was on the same day as my IELTS prep class. I had to choose one and i finally chose to let go of the chance to work in a government office because i have to adhere with the priority i have made. And i think i chose wisely because then i got a good IELTS score and now i’m living my dream, studying in the University of Manchester.

Lesson learned from my experience is that we have to define our goal, as Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland said, if you do not know where you want to go then it doesn’t matter which path you take, so that we can choose what to do now, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, until we are where we want to be. Since we rarely can have everything we want at the same time, we have to decide our priority. Choosing one option means letting go of the other. We win some, we lose some. C’est la vie. Choose one, focus, and do all it takes to get it. Reaching our dream may not be easy. There’s always a challenge and the road will be a little bit bumpy. The key is to be persistence and i don’t know any other way to be persistence besides having a lot of faith to God and to ourselves. A prayer will help us through it all and will get us where we aim to be. Do not ever give up 🙂

Here, i would like to thank Allah for abundance blessings that He gave me. You’re truly the Most Merciful. Thanks for trusting me with this huge opportunity. Thanks to my Mom, Dad, all of my families and best friends for the kindest support. I’m gonna make you guys proud.