I strongly believe that '' You have to go through a rough path to achieve great things '

?I know you might be confused right now by looking at these pictures. So here is my story about achieving another milestone in my life despite all the storms and challenges.

I started my MBA in 2020 and was pretty interested in how the MBA journey was going to be. After a few months down the line, another piece of good news came to us by getting to know that I was pregnant. We were delighted to hear this great news and so were our parents. My pregnancy was not an easy one with food aversion, feeling tired, and all other symptoms. With all these physical discomforts, reporting to work during the pandemic wearing masks every day made my life more painful. I had MBA classes every Tue, Wed & Thu from 6.30 -9.30 pm. So I used to leave the office sharp by 5.30 pm to be in the class on time. My husband Lanil was very understanding and supportive so he made sure to help me with every necessary thing. If I mention how much he even brought me food, water everything to the table when I was in the class. Both our parents were amazingly helpful too. I was weak and couldn't do any work at home so his mother sent me lunch weekdays to my office through my father-in-law, this is from Panadura to Bambalapitiya. My parents brought dinner every day and food on the weekends too.?

I courageously managed all my work, and studies with all the pregnancy discomfort, feelings, and symptoms. Everything was normal till 9th August 2020. I had severe back and abdomen pain on the 9th of August and on the 10th of August 2020 when we went for a checkup doctor told us that the heartbeat of our baby had stopped!!!! We both were devastated to hear that and the only thing I could do was cry. I didn't know what else to do. We never expected anything like this, not in our lives. I was fully confused, sad, distracted, and miserable. Lots of things came to my mind and it's not only about me, my husband and the hope of our parents too. I don't want to state here the way I suffered physically due to heavy bleeding, severe cramps, severe back pain and so much more. I have never ever experienced physical pain like that in my whole life. I recall I asked for sleeping tablets a few times as even the high-dose painkillers didn't work for me. Somehow I got home after a day at the hospital. I?remember I cried almost every day but never forgot to pray and read the Bible during these difficult times. I had 5 assignment submissions starting from the end of August, exactly after two weeks from the day I faced this incident. But I had no clue how to do an assignment as I haven't done it before. I was helpless and didn't know what to do. I felt like I was going to lose everything, all my hopes and happiness. During this time, I spoke to one of my friends and told him my story and said that I am planning to mitigate the program. He said to me '' Petra, you can do this I know. Just write something and submit it. I know that you can do this''?So I also thought for a while and said to myself I lost one hope already and I am not going to lose my next hope too. So I had a chat with my husband and he said he will be there with me and for me in everything I do and he will help in whatever ways he could with household chores. He also asked me not to do any homework until I finish all the assignments. So I started writing my assignments. Believe me, it was not easy. Due to a Dilation and Curettage complications, I had continuous severe abdominal pain. I suffered 2 months after the miscarriage because of this reason physically.?So all I did was take painkillers, have coffees, have power naps to recover from the pain and continue my assignments at night times. Also, there were days that I badly wanted to go home and rest during weekdays as I reported to work every day. But somehow I managed to work with all my pains. I am so glad and proud I did all those by myself during all these difficulties.

On a very short note during my 2nd semester, I achieved many good things in my life after a rollercoaster including completing the driving learning process, buying a vehicle, moving to a bigger new house. Not only that I also joined Sanfer Technologies, my current employer (a subsidiary of SAT) expanding my career. Usually, people say not to change their job during an MBA. So I think you can imagine now. With all the good things and by the time we were given another 7 assignments I realized that I had mild depression. I?was happeningto feel depressing feeling six months after the miscarriage. I realized it's quite normal among women who go through such an incident. I tried my best to overcome it with the meditations and exercises that were given to me. As I thought earlier, my only focus was to do my job properly and complete my MBA no matter what. So I did it with all the depressing feelings I got and actually focusing on my studies really helped me to get rid of it. Then again I did it myself.?

On 4th August 2021, the very first day I had a meeting with my supervisor in the 3rd semester, My PCR report brought me positive news. Oh yes, I was down with Covid. This was our dissertation time so I didn't want to miss anything of it.?I joined the very first meeting I had with my supervisor when I was having a fever and a headache thanks to Covid 19. For about 2 weeks all I did was sleep. So I couldn't start the dissertation at the given timelines but after recovering from Covid and as a result of all sleepless nights and restless weekends I managed to submit my research on time.??

So you see If you have the determination to win something you can do it. Nothing can stop you. This is my story. Do you have a story like this? Please share that will help others to understand that every one of us goes through different battles at different time periods. But it's not the end of life. That's life. Some incidents in our lives are beyond our control. It doesn't mean we should leave everything behind and live with disappointments nor sorrow. I am so proud of where I am today and how I achieved all these among all the circumstances. Today if someone tells me I had a miscarriage or have depression believe me I can understand your feelings coz I went through that. I am more than happy to open up and help anyone who wants to share their pain and sorrow. Isn't that a blessing? I am pretty sure not everyone can do that. And the greatest lesson I learnt was everything happens for a reason and I won that because I looked for the hidden blessings in my life even through dark periods of my life. Trust me if I did it you can do it too.?I have not detailed everything I went through I have summarized almost everything.

Finally, only a very few people knew the hard time I went through during the program for almost 1 1/2 years. So this is high time to appreciate their encouragement and company because without them I wouldn't have done this. As I always say '' Thank You Lord Jesus for guiding me in everything I do and helping me, I came this far because of your love and guidance''?

My lovely husband for being with me always supporting me in everything I do, No matter what stands behind me, without your support I wouldn't have done this. My parents and parents-in-law for sharing our sorrows and happiness in everything we go through and supporting us to reach new goals every day. People who encouraged me Thilan, Sandaruwan, Ryan, Sam, Mahesh, Punsasee, Dinath, Apsara Thanks a trillion for all your encouragement and company.?

So here I am today fully recovered physically and mentally, graduated from the University of the Year in UK, Cardiff Metropolitan University with lot of experience and knowledge in life, career many more.

Last, not least '' Petra, You did it. Keep up the good work and well done!''

Praise the Lord!

(PS- I had to use the article option to share my story as LinkedIn doesn't allow me to post this as a normal post due to the word count)