It represented a triumph over two years filled with unimaginable trials – of physical pain, emotional loss and unwavering determination.
For Ayesya, graduation was not just an achievement. It was a promise kept to her late mother.
Just a year ago, in the midst of her studies, Ayesya and her husband were involved in a serious motorcycle accident that turned their lives upside down.
She fractured her right humerus, suffered radial nerve damage that left her unable to lift her wrist, and endured multiple injuries across her face and legs.
Her husband injured his right shoulder and knee and had to undergo two surgeries. For months, he relied on a wheelchair – but Ayesya, with her own broken arm, could not even push it.
What was supposed to be a single surgery for Ayesya turned into three. Her bone failed to heal, requiring doctors to extract bone marrow from her pelvis to stimulate growth.
Later, a metal screw in her arm broke, forcing another operation. Tasks as simple as typing, writing or driving became daily battles. Yet she refused to let these setbacks deter her from her studies.
The greatest heartbreak
Amidst recovery, Ayesya faced a devastating loss: the passing of her mother.
She had met with her the night before the accident, unaware it would be their final conversation. After being warded, her mother’s condition worsened rapidly due to a recurrence of cancer after 13 years of remission.
When Ayesya learnt her mother had been admitted, she’d instructed her family members not to tell her mum about her own injuries, hoping to spare her unnecessary worry.
But when her mother’s condition deteriorated further, Ayesya became desperate to get to the hospital. With one arm immobilised and her husband in a wheelchair, she could not drive. She waited anxiously for a friend to help her – a wait that felt like forever.
By the time she reached the hospital, her mother had already passed away.
Her grandmother had passed away just a year earlier. And long before that, Ayesya had already leart to navigate life without her father, who had died when she was in her late teens.
Losing these pillars of strength at different stages of her life – and then her mother so suddenly – made her personal and academic journeys even heavier.
Ayesya’s academic bond with her mother stretched back to childhood. When her mother pursued her PhD in Dunedin, New Zealand, a 13-year-old Ayesya often sat beside her in the University of Otago library, helping review journals and questionnaires.
Years later, she followed her mum’s footsteps to UPM, even enrolling in the same faculty – Fakulti Bahasa Moden dan Komunikasi.
Completing her master’s now feels like the culmination of a road they embarked upon together two decades ago.
Ayesya credits her lecturers for allowing her to attend classes online and sit for digital exams throughout her recovery. Her classmates shared notes and ensured she kept pace. Her employers offered patience and understanding as she went through recovery.
“On days when everything felt too heavy, someone always stepped forward – a friend, a lecturer, a colleague,” she said. “Their support kept me moving.”
As she crossed the convocation stage, Ayesya carried more than the weight of a graduation gown: she carried her mother’s memory, her husband’s resilience, and the quiet strength she discovered through crisis.
She found her eyes drifting again and again towards the UPM alumni section, hoping her mother might somehow be there among the crowd.
“This degree taught me that progress doesn’t have to be fast to be meaningful,” she reflected. “Some days it’s slow, some days it hurts, but as long as you keep moving, you’re still going forward.”
Ayesya hopes her story will remind others that challenges and upheaval don’t define the end of a story.
“Life can change overnight – but a detour is not the end. Hold on to faith in yourself, even when the path feels impossible.”