Coming to a new country as a refugee without my family and later becoming a teen mum wasn’t an excuse to not pursue my dreams of attaining higher education. In Denmark, after learning the Danish language I had to start school from the 9th grade till college. Afterwards I came to University of Leicester, UK to do my undergraduate degree, my first master degree in Infectious Diseases and Immunology, a PhD in Tuberculosis and Immunology, a post-graduate diploma in Medical Pathology, and today (8th July, 2015) I graduated with my second master degree in Medical Diagnostics at Cranfield University. We finished September last year but we had to wait until July this year to graduate because Cranfield University host the graduation ceremony once per annum.

It would be bittersweet to miss out on studying Medical Diagnostics at Cranfield University, not only is Cranfield one of the leading universities in global innovation including their worldwide reputation in biosensors and diagnostics. Cranfield University was where I needed to be, as they teach both medical imaging and medical laboratory diagnostics. But finding out later on that we (class 2016) are the last graduates because the Department of Health has been demolished.

So how do I go about achieving my dreams?

Well, I have never made an excuse for myself despite facing numerous adversities. Whenever life knocks me down I stood up gracefully and shook off all the issues that were hindering my success and moved forward. Patience, perseverance, determination, hard work, concentration and self-belief were the reagent of my success.

I’ve always believed that one day my dreams would come true and today I can proudly say that I not only achieved one or two or three or four, but five University Degrees while working, doing charity work and raising my five children without the benefit of a partner.

My passion and interest to contribute lies indeed within education, healthcare and entrepreneurship. As I embark on my next chapter on rebuilding Somalia, one person, one brick at a time. I hope that you will join me on my journey to make the world a better place for all of us.

Note:

Below picture is me holding Brian Tracy’s book: NO EXCUSES – THE POWER OF SELF-DISCIPLINE.

Although you don’t need to have a university degree to succeed in life, you definitely need to educate yourself. Grab a book, go to a seminar or training – educate yourself in any way, form or shape that you can. Invest yourself, because the best investment that you can do is ‘investing yourself with knowledge!

Herein, I leave you with a quote from Brian Tracy:

“Discipline is what you must have to resist the lure of excuses”

@briantracy #noexcuses #selfdiscipline #education #cranfield70 #cranfieldalumni

Thank you for reading my blog post and please feel free to join the conversation!