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My biggest flex this year is undoubtedly completing my MSc degree and graduating with distinction

It all started when I moved from Nigeria to the United Kingdom on the 26th of August 2022. I honestly, till date cannot put into words the exact emotion I was feeling. All I can say is that I was far from being scared, and you may be wondering why. Let’s get into it.

One common emotion most international students share is “fear”. The fear of leaving their home country and moving to a new place where in most cases they do not know anyone. Fear is a valid feeling because as humans we are geared towards certainty than uncertainty. In my case I was not scared of moving to a different country by myself rather I had the mindset that I did not want to live the same I did in my home country. I think I must have mastered the art of being alone and I could talk about it on my YouTube channel (Leave a comment if you would like me to). As I said, the term alone became such an unfrightening word for me as it allowed me ”bare” myself out to myself that I craved it all the more.

A few years had passed since I finished my undergraduate degree and I was starting to wonder how I was going to channel the Albert Einstein in me bearing in mind that this was a different education system than I previously experienced. First semester came and my brain was on fire, It was bombarded with lots of theories and critical thinking, my saving grace was I found some of the concepts interesting and familiar but it did not stop my brain from checking out of concepts I was not familiar with. For someone who took pride in her writing abilities, I doubted this beautiful fingers of mine, I found it hard putting my thoughts into written words and I struggled so much with all the rambles in by subconscious making it hard for me to understand what exactly I wanted to communicate. Outside school my social life was staggering and I was trying to cling unto the ropes of desperation and the fear of missing out. Thankful for the few people in my corner who made me feel a sense of community. I found myself leaning and tapping into my creative sphere. Life wasn’t the best but it was better than the awkward stare on my face during consumer psychology classes.

Second semester came and went as quickly as it came. I had taken pride in my writing abilities and realised that I am so much smarter than I act (credit to my first semester results). I finally understood my research writing style and I used it to the fullest and became confident in my deliverables. Maybe I had so much confidence that I left most coursework to the dying minute and put myself through a painful mental turmoil of getting everything done in days (definitely not the best idea). But It was working I guess. I had being assigned a dissertation supervisor at this point and I was currently undertaking my placement as a content developer and graphics designer for my school. It was a brief project but it quickly became my pride and joy maybe that is why it hurt so much when I did not get the grade I was expecting which was not related to the execution of the project but an after report. If I would say so myself “the marketing brochure I designed was magnificent”. I had never cried the past year the way I cried that day and the major emotion I felt was anger. Pretty much sure that if I had cried anymore than I did, I would have had to pick up my eyes from the floor.

Final semester came and classes were not up to my ten fingers. I preferred it that way as I was working that summer and being an international student majority of the time you are unable to work early in the day because of classes. However, this semester was solely for dissertation writing and constant check-ins with your supervisor so I was able to pick shifts that had an earlier start time while I would work on my dissertation at night or on days I was not working. I cried a lot during this period because this dissertation took so much from me mentally. My research was centred around product aesthetics and product functionality and it was new for me and only few research had been conducted especially with the demographic I was focused on. Product marketing and management is something I really fancy and I would someday love to make a career out of it. Anyway, I submitted my dissertation on the 18th of September 2023.

After submission came the anxiety of what my final result would be. I prayed and waited desperately because I had put my everything into it and I was not ready to take anything less than a distinction. Third week of October, my class representative called me to tell my the result had been released and my heart jumped not for joy at the moment but out of fear. My heart sunk and I could clearly hear my heartbeat, the last time I felt this way was in July 2018. I said okay weakly as I held my phone firmly as my hands were shaking. Tring to log into my portal was the longest 2 minutes of my life, who knows I might have delayed checking it in a hurry. I scrolled my phone slowly like I was avoiding getting to the point that showed the grade while frantically closing and opening my eyes like I were blind. There it was, the most beautiful A ever. In a split second my heart rate decreased and became steady and my lips gave way for the smile I had been holding in for a year. It was finally over, I made it. I told my loved ones, gingered my friends to check theirs and I went back to sleep with the biggest gratitude to God.