When I finished my A’ levels, all of my friends were planning to go abroad for their higher studies and I was no exception. It was a seemingly easy choice to make at the time and I really wanted to enjoy my Bachelor’s Degree with my friends. Things were all well and good before I started working. My first job was just as an administrative staff. It was not what I had wanted to do, but it was an amazing place to work in. I felt like my first job taught me everything I needed to know about an ideal work environment.

Working and earning money for the first time in my life felt almost entirely different to what I was expecting. I was able to put myself into my fathers’ shoes and experience life from his perspective. I was the eldest of 4 in my family and leaving for my studies slowly became a choice I didn’t want to make. However, my parents were willing to sacrifice everything necessary for me to be able to achieve my dreams.

I have always heard of Villa College before, but never in my wildest dreams have I ever seen myself doing my Bachelor’s Degree in Maldives. However, given my circumstances, I started looking for options here and Villa College offered exactly what I wanted to study, Economics with Business Management. On top of that, it was an attractive UK Degree from one of the UK’s top-30 business schools. Studying a programme from the University of the West of England has been an amazing experience so far and has helped me improve so much in various aspects.

It was by no means an easy task though. Juggling a full-time job and a full-time Bachelor’s Degree programme is by far, one of the toughest things I had to do. Dreading to have to wake up first thing every morning just before dragging myself to work had been a terrible ordeal on some days, while concentrating in class almost every night on weekdays became haunting on other days. In all of this pressure to perform at both work and in class, I learnt a very important lesson. That is, in order to succeed, you need to find your strengths and adjust your mentality and work ethics accordingly, all the while aiming to always achieve the highest level possible in everything. “Aim for the moon and you will land on the stars” should be your motto and everything will turn out perfect, In Sha Allah.

In my case, I had a set dream. I am still achieving my goals and building for my future. Although I didn’t change my dreams, I simply changed the way I wanted to achieve them. It is amazing how there are opportunities of the highest level here in our little island nation.