Rafia Naveed

Academic

Career

Verbatim text

Rafia Naveed (18I-0212) 
 
With some excitement and a lot of anxiety, I looked forward to embarking on a new phase in my 
life. A phase where I had to prove myself academically and befriend strangers for the next 4 long 
years.  
I honestly found it extremely daunting at first, thinking that I would not be able to adjust to such a 
different environment with no one to guide me except my intuition. For a while, I even believed 
that changing my university would solve all my problems, however, I have always liked taking on a 
challenge and that is exactly what FAST was providing. Isolating myself in the library, spending time
studying not knowing how each assignment, quiz, and class participation would contribute to my 
final grade, and taking the university life head-on. That is how I remember my first semester going. 
With seven more semesters still to go, I decided to not confine myself to studies and participated in 
events, such as NasCon, that FAST held and that gave me a chance to see a different side of the
university. Being in the finance department so I could have a better insight into my degree, 
interacting with peers from different batches, and dealing with people at the front desk in the 
scorching heat was a memorable and a learning experience that I will never forget. 
Deciding to utilize the most of my time and to put my skills and learnings to use, I became a 
teaching assistant for 4 different courses and took up assisting students in their academics and 
grading their work. While this did become a lot of work, it taught me how to effectively manage my 
time and workload. 
While I am appreciative of all the time I have spent inside the campus, I also feel as if my university 
experience was robbed due to the pandemic. On the other hand, it also gave me exposure to online 
classes and the challenges that comes with them. It taught me how to adapt to the situation around 
me and also made me realize to be grateful for the limited time I had left. 
Now, as my university life comes to an end, 4 long years fall short as I found myself feeling at home 
with the people who moulded me into the person that I am today.

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