Life’s an ocean of possibilities

Graduating with a CGPA of 3.77 provided me with the opportunity to pursue my PhD directly without having to complete my Masters.

I was blessed with the opportunity to pursue my PhD and work with a world-reknown researcher in the University of Sydney, Prof Dr Nicholas Hunt, whose research work is in the field of malaria, and who is also credited with the groundbreaking find of a new human enzyme.

It’s been two years since I started applying for scholarships. I’ve been to a number of interviews that puzzlingly found me and my research project not worth funding.

Yet, I believe that great things are still possible. Not because of who I am but because of who God is in our midst. After almost two years, various applications and countless email, I was finally offered a scholarship by the University of Malaya to pursue my PhD last March.

Has the journey been smooth since then? Don’t even think about it. My approval is still stuck with the Ministry of Higher Education, although I am supposed to report in Sydney in July.

Have I given up? Of course not. Do I feel like giving up? Sometimes, but rarely so. Will I have to rush through my preparations? Without a doubt. Do I wish that the system was more efficient and assisted the students better? Of course.

But none of this stops me from trying every day to move forward to the things I dream for.

Opportunities come, but never easily or smoothly. Good things worth fighting for, are worth waiting for. I see where I come from and I see where I am today.

In all of it, I see a never-ending string of surprises intricately entwined in the journey of my life. Where we come from does not determine where we will go. What we don’t have does not decide what we will end up with.

Life is an ocean of possibilities. It moves forward with the vehicle of faith.

FELICITA FEDELIS JUSOF,
Butterworth.


http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/6/17/focus/8916375&sec=focus