Blog – Embracing Unplanned Opportunities

If you’ve been following my journey, you’ll know that I am in my final year of being an undergraduate and in the middle of completing graduate job/PhD applications. I am pleased to announce that I got offered a teaching job! But as I sit here writing this, I have to admit that whilst I’m truly excited to have secured a job right after graduation, there was a tiny part of me that had mixed feelings about it.

This blog entry is going to be emotionally raw, so prepare yourselves.

When I first got the offer email and saw the words “Congratulations, we are pleased to confirm” in my inbox, I was beyond thrilled. It’s a solid opportunity, a chance to develop my skills, gain invaluable experience, and contribute to something meaningful. But that excitement was laced with disappointment. It wasn’t my original plan. It wasn’t what I had envisioned for myself. To make things worse, I still haven’t heard back from the PhD programs I applied to, leaving me stuck in this weird limbo between achievement and uncertainty.

Initially, I felt like I had somehow failed. But the more I sit with it, the more I’m realising that this is just another part of the journey—one that might teach me more than I expected. This experience has taught me that success doesn’t have one definition, one path. I used to think success meant getting a PhD right after graduation. But that’s such a narrow way to look at things. Landing a graduate job—especially in teaching, where I’ll develop communication skills, leadership, resilience, and hopefully inspire the next generation of students to pursue a career in science—is still a huge achievement.

I feel, as undergraduates and recent graduates, there’s a tremendous amount of pressure to have a carefully curated plan of what your career or life is going to be once you leave education. But that is certainly not the case. I recognise now that life isn’t a straight line. It has many paths, and sometimes what you might consider a detour is actually just another way forward. Which leads me nicely to my next point…

Every experience adds to your personal growth.

I’m not saying that I’m completely disregarding the idea of completing a PhD entirely. But for now, I get to experience something new. Teaching will help me refine the way I communicate complex ideas—something that’s just as crucial in research as it is in a classroom. It’ll teach me patience, adaptability, and how to engage people with science in a different way.

More importantly, I want to use this teaching opportunity to make a difference. The value of education and having positive teachers and mentors is incontrovertible. I have been lucky enough to have some really supportive teachers in my academic and professional life. My goal as a teacher-to-be is to inspire students from ethnic minorities, particularly young girls, to pursue a career or further education in science. The lack of representation is far too common in this field, and if I can be part of the solution—even in a small way—that’s incredibly meaningful to me. Who knows? Maybe this path to becoming a teacher will lead to opportunities I never even considered before, just like the path of doing a placement year unexpectedly led to me becoming a blogger for Dementia Researcher.

At the end of the day, I’ve realised that my worth is not defined by whether or not I get accepted into a PhD program. I’m still the same person with the same ambitions, and this doesn’t change that. It’s easy to get caught up in what we think we “should” be doing, but sometimes, the best thing we can do is embrace where we are. I’ve been guilty of tying my identity too closely to my academic achievements (I think a lot of students can strongly relate to this), and this experience has forced me to take a step back and reassess what really matters.

Yes, I still want to do a PhD. Yes, I still have scientific curiosity and would like to pursue academic research. But I’m also learning that there’s more to life than just the next career milestone.

Growth happens in unexpected ways, and sometimes, the best opportunities come when we least expect them.

So, I hope this blog helps someone in a similar boat to me. Maybe you didn’t get the grades you thought you deserved—this could be an opportunity to reconsider your revision strategies. Or maybe you didn’t get into the university you were hoping for—perhaps another university might be the place where you thrive and make unforgettable experiences.

Overall, this experience has taught me to fully embrace change, and I cannot wait to see what this next chapter has in store for me!

Yasmin Bonsu

Author

Yasmin Bonsu is an an undergraduate student from the University of Manchester, who recently completed a placement year in the Carlyle Lab at Oxford University. Yasmin was investigating the activity of proteoforms of the granin family in cortical neurons insulted with oligomerised amyloid beta. Her goal is to her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, and then pursue a PhD in clinical neuroscience. Through Yasmin’s blogs we’ll gain insights on life as an undergraduate, and hopefully inspire others to pursue a career in dementia research.

Follow @yasminnnx2