After nearly five years of shuttling between the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia, finally I am back in Jeddah after finishing my studies.

Everything appears to be different these days. In the past few weeks, I felt as if my IQ has nosedived to an all-time low. Due to the changed circumstances, I have become skeptical about my analytical skills. I am unable to analyze anything apart from plumbing issues, furniture delivery, decoration appointments and all such issues related to moving to a new place.

And being a single mother trying to restart life in Jeddah is far more challenging. As a Saudi woman, the issue of transportation is always on the top.

I am writing this article in a cab operating under a company known worldwide. I am taking the chance here to thank all transport companies for making our lives easier. It is true, however, that we are forced to use their services due to the lack of any other means of transportation but honestly their services are reliable and lets not talk about the amount of money I am spending on these.

Since my return I am trying to avoid the issue of driving. It is just useless.

So, let us just be grateful that at least we have a means of transportation, which is clean and reliable, unlike the normal city taxis that you hail from the street where the smell is usually awful and the attitude of the driver is just as bad as driving in the street of Jeddah.

I keep on reflecting on the time spent at Sheffield doing my Ph.D. I still remember the thesis-writing phase, which proved to be the most stressful yet enjoyable phase. As someone who enjoyed creative writing, academic writing was a challenge to me. Writing literature review was really hard, as it required academic-style reporting and criticism of other people’s works. Writing within boundaries was hard for me and I needed to go through several drafts to get the approval of my supervisor. On the contrary, jotting down my research findings was as enjoyable as writing my YouTube shows’ scripts.

I am happy that I chose purely qualitative methods for my research. I hear lots of prospective Ph.D. students saying that quantitative methods are easier and more straightforward. I beg to differ. I believe that it all depends on the research topic, your own interest and factors like time and resources.