The journey of my Masters degree wasn't that much fun. Most of the girls I knew where not interested in continuing to higher education. They had no compelling reason for it, so why should they?!!

Everyone said, "Are you crazy? Why do you want to continue studying? Its not like its gonna give you a better job prospect!"
Maybe they were right! Actually, they were definitely right. My job prospect was decreasing with the increase in my education, but I didn't care at that moment. All I wanted was not to go back to that place, a.k.a Home.

Studying of its own was not hard at all. But the education system was lacking any intelligence and the higher ups were absolutely retarded in terms of behaviorisms and common sense. Not surprising, considering everything else in Saudi Arabia.

"Okay! This time, I wont ask you why I was born! But at least tell me why I was born HERE in a place where I don't belong? Why not somewhere else?" I was wondering now.

Wonder why I was born was the constant question of my life which I never had an answer to neither an explanation for. I have been dragging myself through life and, so far, my end doesn't seem eminent. I slept so many nights wishing not to wake up next morning only to find myself opening my eyes, looking at the same sad ceiling, living the same sad and useless life. Day in, day out...

"Humph... another day to... live!"

I plowed through the masters courses and started the experimental part of it. I was in the Physical Chemistry field which requires experimental work to finish and graduate and that part was not easy to go through. Not because of the difficulty level of the project, but because of... Bad Luck!?

If there is anything I was sure about in my life, it would be one thing. No matter what level of schooling I was in, I was always disliked and bullied. The funny thing is, when seeing the other girls interact with each other and make fiends, I always wished I could be their friend. But I was terrified to approach them and get rejected so I always kept to myself, studying hard and trying not to bother anyone.

Now I am doing my masters, why should it be any different? It wasn't. Except this time I wasn't sure if I was bullied only by humans or God himself decided to have some twisted fun with me this time...

The sand project:

Source

The teacher was thrilled to have me work with her. The project was about testing different sand samples as water filtering materials.

~ The first step: clean the sand from any minerals by washing it with water several times. Very straight forward right?

Off to the lab I go, excited to finally do some practical work. Take the sand, put it in large plastic bottles, add the watter, shake, shake, shake.. leave it upright until next day to settle down, and then repeat. Easy breezy... Not!

Next day, excited I go to the lab for my second washing step. The sand DID NOT precipitate! It was still suspended in the water!!

"Okay?!" I thought to myself " Maybe it needs longer time!"

One day, two days, three, four, Five days....

" Nope! Still hanging in there!!!"

I went to consult with my project teacher and told her what happened.

"What?? What do you mean it is not precipitating?? Are you sure you did everything correctly?"

I promised her that I did everything as she told me. With a doubtful tone she instructed me to add a small amount of heavy metal which should nudge the Sand to cooperate with gravity.

"Just 1 gm, no more. Okay? and leave it for the weekend" She said.

After the weekend, I went to the lab with hopeful anticipation.

" Nope! Still hanging in there!!!" my shoulders drooped

Scared to go back to face the teacher, I added few more grams of the metal to force the sand to cooperate with gravity. Another couple of weeks of waiting and adding increasing amounts of the heavy metal went by to no avail.

"I have no choice now, eh? I have to go face the music"

Source

Reluctant, I went to my teacher to tell her what had transpired so far

"What?? Add more of the heavy metal.. That should bring it down for sure!"

"Ermm, I added a lot more during the past 2 weeks, up to 100 gm but nothing happened. The sand is still suspended in the water"

_ "This is the first step in the project and you are not able to do that even? How are you supposed to continue if you don't have sand to work with?"_

"But.. but I tried. Is there another way I could try or maybe another type of sand? Maybe this one is just not the type to precipitate...!" I said with a hopeful tone

"It is Sand for God's sake! How is it possible that its not precipitating?" She exclaimed then continued "Sand is sand! And this is not the first time we use this type. Students before you did use it successfully!" She retorted "I will not work with you anymore! I was told by other students not to, but I was fooled by your grades. I should have listened"

I stood there silently in shock. Not sure what to say for a moment! "Maybe it will precipitate if I wait longer. I..."

"Go find another teacher to work with and good luck with that" She cut me off _"You must be cursed!" She finished with a harsh tone

I wished her a good day as I left her office, eyes on the floor.

"What am I supposed to do now? Whom I should go to?" I wondered in tears

Source

To be continued...

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Dr. The leaping koala :)

~ If interested to read my story from the beginning, you can find the previous entries here in Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

Logo courtesy of @bearone

Many thanks for reading, commenting and upvoting :D