The Eight-Year Bachelor's Degree Journey. Click here to read the article

“Wasting your time in uni, repeating it over and over, for what?” This is what I would hear every time I met some of my closest friends! Well, here’s the story of that eight-year bachelor's degree.

?

First Year of University (2018)

I vividly remember my first year of uni. For the first time in my life, I truly cared about what I was studying and how my grades would turn out. The first day felt like stepping into a whole new world. The atmosphere was nothing like school. I even remember using my phone on campus, which, for me, felt like a huge sign of freedom!

But freedom wasn’t the only thing—I had to put in the effort. I was fully committed to uni life. I would arrive at 8 a.m., finish classes by 5 p.m., and then head to the library to study until 9 or 10 p.m. every day. I kept this routine for an entire year, overcoming all kinds of obstacles. But to my shock, the hardest part came when I failed all my main subjects in both semesters, no matter how much time and effort I put in. I was devastated, little did I know.

?

Starting Fresh (2019)

In 2019, I decided to start fresh at a new university. One of the best gains I took from my first year was knowing how to study properly—and it worked. I had a great year and finished with a GPA of 4.5!

Feeling confident, I applied to law college, and my application was pre-approved by the admissions officer (or whoever was in charge; I still don’t know the exact term :) ). By this time, I had built a strong reputation on campus for helping others. I became known as the go-to person for explaining tricky concepts and helping classmates. I even got involved in WhatsApp groups to answer questions and sometimes did one-on-one tutoring sessions.

With that success, I had to make a bold decision: I took a gap year to go to New Zealand and improve my English. I packed my bags and got ready for a new chapter.

?

2019-2020: New Experience, New Start

When I arrived in New Zealand, I was full of energy and passion to learn the language. Talking to people had always been my thing, but here, English wasn’t as easy as I thought.

For three weeks, I struggled to hold a proper conversation. Then it finally clicked, and from that moment on, I never stopped talking. By the end of my time there, I wasn’t just speaking English—I had even started learning Korean and French!

New Zealand was a life-changing experience. In just 10 months, I grew in ways I never thought possible. I became more mature and gained a whole new perspective on life.

What matters most to our story today is that I started rethinking what I wanted to study. On a very cold day, I walked into Starbucks for a hot chocolate. My best friend had just left New Zealand, and I felt all alone. Yet, being Musaad :) I soon found myself in a casual conversation with two of my dear friends who I barely knew back then. One of them suggested marketing as my next studies, as I am talkative enough to connect with anyone. Funny enough, this was the turning point that got me into the field of marketing.

When I returned to Saudi, I signed up for a marketing Nanodegree provided by Misk Foundation in collaboration with Udacity . It was my first real introduction to marketing.

?

Finding Marketing

Six months later, I finished my Nanodegree, and for some forcible reasons, I had to complete one last semester of law school in order to change my major to marketing (it didn’t work out though). At the same time, I was lucky enough to get two internships at different marketing agencies in Jeddah. These internships were tough at first, but I learned so much and gained practical experience in marketing.

After finishing the internships and the semester I had to take in law school, the move to business and marketing college wasn’t possible at my uni, which means there was no other option than studying law, which wasn’t a choice for me at all. I started looking for a new university that would get me closer to what I wanted to study. In three months, I found myself in front of a big decision to make: sacrificing my 4.5 GPA and choosing between studying Human Resources in Amsterdam with a full scholarship or studying E-commerce in Riyadh. After thinking it over, I chose Riyadh. The motive back then was my commitment to the path I chose in the first place.

When I moved to Riyadh, I started working as a night-shift cashier while finishing my studies. I didn’t have a car, so I found a place to live close enough to walk to work. It wasn’t ideal, but it got the job done. I stayed in that role for a year and discovered a new interest in hospitality.

This led me to apply for a hospitality program through the Ministry of Tourism of Saudi Arabia in collaboration with ESSEC Business School , which took me to France. Paris added a whole new perspective to my life. It showed me just how much impact hospitality can have and how far it can go. When I came back, I wanted to use what I had learned to improve things at my workplace.

I imagined a role where I could use customer feedback to create real changes, working closely with the marketing team. Unfortunately, that plan didn’t work out. Even so, my marketing background caught people’s attention.

Meanwhile, I was doing a marketing role with a company whenever I was available depending on my shift (and this experience deserves an article by itself, as it enriched me in so many ways, taking me a lot closer to myself) and also keeping uni on track, and not missing out on the assignment.

?

The Turning Point

One day, the CEO of my workplace, where I worked in the role of a cashier, asked me, “Why is everyone talking about you? What do you have to offer?” That was the moment I had been waiting for. I had pre-prepared a marketing plan tailored for the audience I interacted with daily. Presenting the plan to the CEO got me my first move from cashier to marketing. I worked in that role for six months, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had.

Then I moved to my current role, and here I am today, graduating from university after eight years, way more ready to experience life. If there is one takeaway from this long article, it is this:

Life doesn’t stop you; it redirects you to what’s best for you.

In the end, the story has not ended yet, and there is a lot more to discover, such as which part of marketing is best suited for me. :) Stay tuned; the story is going to be extraordinarily interesting—this is my commitment to myself.

?