God, motivation and the power of not giving up
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My name is Patience Dzidzeme Mboti, and I am a 25 year old HND Mechanical Engineering graduate of Cape Coast Polytechnic in Ghana. This is my story.
After my senior high school education, I applied to universities to study Mechanical Engineering, but did not gain admission because my grades did not meet the cut off points. Everyone, including friends and family, did not believe I could make it. You know, that “NO UNIVERSITY, NO FUTURE” reasoning. People who had promised to help take care of my tuition fees gave up on me. I was devastated and had nowhere to turn to. However, I did not give up, neither did I give in.
A friend advised me to apply to the Polytechnic since the Polytechnic also offered Mechanical Engineering, so I paid heed to the advice and applied. I gained admission.
Initially, I did not know what I was getting myself into. The first time I entered the lecture room, I realized I was the only lady in the class. When people got to know I was studying Mechanical Engineering, they told me, "It is very difficult and for men only". They also advised me to go and plead with the administration so that they would change the course for me to study a program like marketing or accounting. Amazingly, these negative comments rather motivated me to prove everyone wrong, including those who no longer had confidence in me.
I will not say it was easy, because the first time I went for lectures, I did not fully understand everything. I got this far and decided to learn extra hard.
One important thing is, I never left God out of the equation. My faith in Him grew so mightily that I said a word of prayer before I set off for lectures each day. I'd say; “Lord, You are my wisdom, my knowledge and my understanding and because you live in me, I know everything”.
By the time the first semester ended, I was teaching group members who were all guys. Sometimes other group members would come and join mine to get my clarification on certain topics. It was an amazing experience. At the end of the first semester, I was in the "first class" category and also topped my class.
I went on to graduate with first class honors and still topped my class. On graduation day I received the following awards:
- Best Graduating Female Engineering Student
- Best Graduating Mechanical Engineering Student
- Overall Best Graduating Student in the School of Engineering
- Overall Best Graduating Female Student
I believe you can ultimately be anything you want to be as a person. It does not matter if you are a lady. You can fulfill your career dreams with hard work, determination and with God involved.
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About the author
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