Lady Who Started Her PhD At Cranfield University England, Shares How She Tested Positive For COVID

A lady named Josephine Chikwana who’s presently studying for her PHD at Cranfield University England,
has narrated her challenges after she tested positive for COVID and how it has affected her studies.

Sharing on her LinkedIn platform, she wrote:

On 31st January, 2022. I officially started my PhD journey at Cranfield University. Safe to say I survived the first week and despite it being the worst way to start this new journey, I am forever grateful to God, my family, friends and my fellow PhD scholars in my cohort for making the week bearable.

I envisioned a week with lots of networking and exploring the campus just to get the new student outlook over and done with, but unfortunately, I only visited the campus on the first day (Yipee!). I got home after day one of intense induction (some fun, some nerve-wracking) to a horrible cold/flu.

I later tested positive for COVID and it literally crushed me because I was eager to start off this new journey with a bang, just didn’t think it would be that kind of a “bang”.

Throughout the week, I had so many different emotions going through my head, anger, anxiety, sadness but most of all HOPE! I had my first presentation on 4th February and it was one of the hardest presentations for me because my voice was gone and my body just wasn’t functioning like it normally should. Instead of backing down and using my illness as an excuse to NOT present. I used this as an opportunity to showcase my research and in the end I think everyone has at least one bad presentation throughout this journey; Lucky for me I got my bad one out of the way already!

Happy to say that I am now almost fully back on my feet. Staying extra safe. Taking good care of myself and excited to proceed on this roller-coaster journey.
Biggest thing to remember is “It’s okay to take a time-out when you’re down. Just don’t stay down cause time waits for no-one” #phd #university #grateful.

Source: Josephine|Chikwana
LinkedIn

Email: elora.akpotosevbe@yahoo.com