Rafsha Mazhar

Academic

Career

Verbatim text

Rafsha Mazhar (i17-0028) 
 
When I was younger, my mom would help me prepare my notebooks for the new term and she’d 
always write some motivational quotation on the first page, something along the lines of “Nothing 
is impossible for a willing heart”. She believed in always aiming for a hundred percent. At that time, 
I used to argue that no matter how hard I try, or will, I could never get a hundred percent. That 
some things were, in fact, impossible. And somewhere along the way, I started giving more weight 
to what I had told her than to what she had taught me. 
Back in 2017, when I got admission at FAST NUCES, I was still exploring my career options and 
wasn’t so sure either about FAST or about Computer Science. To top it off, everyone had created 
this image that you could never get good grades here no matter how hard you try, that you may 
excel in the industry post-graduation but never within the university. Already unsure about my 
career path, this negativity only added to my demotivation and convinced me to not even try, in my 
first semester here. Needless to say, I didn’t get an appreciable GPA that semester.  
The following semester, I had no plans to improve because I hadn’t quite realised the fault in my 
judgement then but I put in a slight effort for my grades anyway, rather than completely being 
hopeless about them. That semester, both my SGPA and CGPA increased significantly, which came 
out as a huge surprise for me. That is when I realised my mistake and started aiming for goals I had 
previously deemed unattainable. I challenged myself every semester to break my own record and 
pushed myself to continuously improve. I knew focusing on my studies or challenging myself to 
better myself continuously shouldn’t affect my co-curriculars so I learnt about management and 
balance and about prioritising the right thing at the right time. And above all, I developed a can-do 
attitude. I figured I shouldn’t ever let anyone else’s experience affect mine because everyone has a 
different story and I figured that staying positive and steadfast despite everyone telling you 
otherwise, is the key to success, not only at FAST but anywhere and everywhere. I learned that you 
don’t really lose if you fail but if you let the negativity overpower you and you start doubting your 
own capabilities that is when you truly lose. Success isn’t about how far you have come in a race 
against everyone around you but it is about how far you have come from where you started; 
everyone’s journey is unique and so must be their success story. 
I’ll forever be grateful to Allah, and to my parents, my teachers and my mentors, my colleagues and 
my friends and to everyone else who helped me grow and learn and stay positive through my 
journey. I couldn’t have done this without them. I learned and unlearned a lot in these four years 
and above all, I grew as a person. Now as I am stepping out into my professional life, I hope I