Myra Rafique Khan

Academic

Career

Verbatim text

Myra Rafique Khan (i17-0129) 
 
My journey at FAST-NU has been the greatest learning opportunity of my life; and I do not mean it 
only academically.  
 I chose Computer Science as a major simply out of my love for messing around in computers and 
solving technical problems for my siblings and parents that no one else seemed to understand. 
However, when I started this degree, I had not expected it to be as time-consuming or tough as it 
turned out to be. Even though I knew a lot about computers, the only programming I had ever 
come across was the MSWLogo programming language in primary school. In my first semester, it 
felt like everyone had the problem-solving skills needed for this degree and understood the tools 
and technologies except for me. It made me feel like I was lacking the talent that computer 
scientists had. 
It was a time to decide whether to give up or to work hard enough so as to never fall behind again. 
The thing is, giving up was never the answer for me. If I started something, especially because I was 
genuinely interested in it, I was not going to quit it simply because others were better at it than me. 
I felt like if I gave up on this, I would forever be giving up on things. 
So, along with my university projects, I started taking online classes on platforms like Coursera and 
edX. During this journey, I managed to equip myself with some of the strongest time-management 
skills; I was carrying out my university life, my self-learning projects and my personal and social life 
together.  
I managed to learn how to communicate with my teachers and my peers when I got stuck in a 
problem. This was one of the most important skills I acquired because, due to my competitive 
nature, I had always wanted to do everything by myself. Moreover, I learned teamwork by working 
with all kinds of individuals including friends, colleagues and people I had never talked to before. 
I learned how a good leader can even make a team of freeloaders produce quality work; the way to 
assign tasks, arrange meetings and demos with teachers, and take on the team leadership role.  
At the beginning of this journey, I was doubtful about all my skills. I wasn’t sure if I had it in me to 
ever work hard for anything. But during these four years, FAST has tested and polished my skillset 
in every possible way. Along with this my parents’ support in every phase of my life has made me 
extremely confident about my competence and my ability to make anything happen when I put my 
mind to it. I am sure that as I enter my professional life, everything I have learned here would be 
very useful.