8 Years of Studying and 7 Years of Waiting!

@dr_nf Donning the University of Liverpool’s ‘Red’ PhD gown🥹😭🥹💕 #livunigrad Alhamdolillah🤲🏽Grad Ceremony Part 18 years of studying + 7 additional post grad years of waiting for this ceremony. Remember me in your prayers. (Check my stories for the back story leading to this day) #livunigrad @liverpooluni #graduation #phd #closure #livunigrad #livalumni #canadianinuk #pakistanicanadian 📸 @ ♬ I Feel Good - Pink Sweat$

So this summer of 2022 I did a thing! I gave closure to my PhD journey which I started in 2007 at the University of Liverpool, UK and completed in 2015. I lived through two countries (KSA and UK) while doing this, held a full-time job as a professor in KSA, was a mom and home maker, immigrated to Canada in between and as a distraction also started a magazine (London Link) on the side!

I survived through it all and 8 years later, completed it. With special thanks to Karen Ross.

Then earlier in March this year, I reached out to the University of Liverpool, UK and wrote them this letter:

-"I am an alumnus from University of Liverpool, I graduated in 2015 with a PhD in Communications and Media Studies. I was a new immigrant in Canada at that time, therefore could not afford to come to UK to receive my degree in person. Something I always dreamed of achieving after struggling and working hard as a working mom and a part time student. I really wanted to attend my graduation ceremony, more so, since I could not attend even my MA graduation ceremony in 1995 when I was a British Council Chevening scholar at Coventry University. As an international student, I had to leave in August 1995 and finances did not allow my return for my graduation.

Both times, I got my degree in the mail. Which is sad as an Academic because we cheer students twice a year for graduating from the place we work at.

Even when I did my MBA in Pakistan in 1990, we did not have any graduation ceremony as my university did not do so! We just got to pick up our certificates from the registrar’s office and that was it! 

Why am I writing to you? Because as a professor who claps and sees batches after batches of students graduate, and feels truly happy for them, this has still remained an unfulfilled experience for me.

I am a full-time faculty member at Humber College in Toronto Canada and now in 2022, I want to live my dream and fly to UK to wear the gown and graduate as a PhD (earned in 2015)!

Can you help me make it happen? Can you connect me to the right person who can facilitate this for me?"-

I waited.

I got no reply for a few days, then on the 8th day I got the best news, Anita Irving and her team kindly invited me back to come and fulfill my dream that took 15 years in total to realize!

Thank you to the University of Liverpool for making this happen for me. It was surreal and having my daughter Naira Ahmed, (who is a professor herself now) there with me to celebrate something which her mom started when she was only 14 years old, was the best part! There were quiet tears of gratefulness intermittently rolling down my cheeks throughout the ceremony. Alhamdolillah, sometimes there are delays in life, but God has his perfect timing as I definitely needed a reason to celebrate myself in 2022!

#universityofliverpool #phd #graduation #mediastudies #livunigrad #persistence #patience #redphdgown #alhamdulillah #lategraduation #ukgrad