The last three years have been very challenging for me, as I faced the biggest loss of my life. The things I used to love, the dreams I had and the confidence I had in myself, all seemed to end. I used to think that I would not be able to survive this loss and that sooner or later I would give up.

But I was wrong. Not only did I survive, but I also turned that loss into my biggest strength. I learnt how to live with the loss, and today I am proud that I did not give up on myself. Instead, I made myself stronger and capable of making my family happy and proud of me.

My name is Raiha. Three years ago, I lost my father in a car accident. That day was the darkest day of my life, and I don’t think any other day will ever be worse than that. The moment I heard the news of my father’s death, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It felt like a cruel joke.

How could my father leave me alone? What about the plans we had? What about the dreams he had for me?

Then all the time we had spent together started flashing before my eyes, like an infinite number of stars scattered across the sky. That was the day I almost gave up on my dreams. Why should I keep chasing dreams when the person who had always chased them with me was no longer there? So, I let them go.

My father’s dream for me was to become a doctor. I was only a few steps away from achieving that dream when he left me. So what was the point of continuing? That year, I not only gave up my dream but also lost hope, love and my smile. I isolated myself in my room. I stopped talking to my family and friends because I was completely broken by that loss — until my teacher came to meet me at our house.

Miss Hina was one of my college teachers. She was very dear to me and she loved me like a mother because she was also an old friend of my mother. When all my hopes were lost, she came like a ray of light.

She told me that although my father had left this world too early, his hopes were still alive, breathing within me. At that moment, I realised that my family still needed me, my mother and my siblings. I also realised that I still had to fulfil my father’s wish of me becoming a doctor. He would see me in a white coat through my eyes.

I made up my mind to work hard and now I am officially a doctor. I still feel the void of losing my father, but I am grateful that I did not give up, even though I almost squandered one precious year. The realisation dawned on me just in time. Now I feel relieved that I have lived up to my father’s dream and that I can see my family happy and proud of me.

This world is full of ups and downs, happiness and sadness, loss and gain. But the one who can withstand difficulties with strength is the one who truly grows, because after every hardship there is ease. We must believe in these words and transform our difficulties into strength and motivation.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 19th, 2026

It was early one Saturday morning, and my mother had forced me to go to school to take part in the upcoming mathematics competition. I lazily stepped out of bed and unwillingly got ready for school.

“The school bus doesn’t come on Saturdays, dear, and your father has already gone to work, so you will have to walk to school,” my mum said, almost shouting from the kitchen.

“Great news! Now I have to leave for school 30 minutes early!” I grumbled.

After getting ready, I left for school reluctantly. I yawned as I walked along the footpath. It was a chilly, misty morning. I didn’t realise how long I had been walking because my eyes were so heavy. I had stayed up very late the night before, doom-scrolling.

I didn’t even notice when I tripped over a rock and almost fell. That was when I realised I had been walking in the wrong direction! I had never been there before. The footpath was unpaved, the bushes were untrimmed and there were bugs, and I guess all kinds of insects, everywhere. I looked around and realised I wasn’t the only one on the path.

There was a woman some distance away from me. She was wearing a long, grungy red dress and walking strangely. She seemed to be limping and her hair was messy. I tried not to think much of it, but inside, it terrified me. Something felt wrong.

She suddenly turned and looked at me. She had an ugly, evil smile that made my blood run cold. I tried to take a different path, but there wasn’t one. There was just me and the woman, no one else. Besides, this was not the road to my school!

I ran back. While running, my heart was pounding so fast that I felt it would burst out of my chest. I looked back and saw that she was running after me with the same eerie smile.

I ran faster. In the distance, I saw a signal and a few people standing there. I ran even faster. Then I looked back again and saw that there was no one following me. As I breathed a sigh of relief and turned towards the signal, she was suddenly right there in front of me. I screamed and fainted!

A few minutes later, someone woke me up. I was lying on the footpath and a kind old lady was asking me questions which I couldn’t understand at first.

After a few moments of trying to gather myself, I looked around, but there was no trace of the woman in the red dress.

I thanked the old lady and the people around me, and sprinted to school.

A lot had happened that day. I tried to convince myself that it had all been just a bad dream. I couldn’t focus on the maths quiz or anything, to be honest.

The horror stayed inside me.

I wanted to share it with someone — but who would have believed me?

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 19th, 2026

When Snoop Dogg swaggered into Swansea wearing a Swansea City hoodie and a beanie, it felt surreal. The American rapper took his seat at the Swansea.com Stadium and, for a moment, Welsh football tilted slightly off its axis.

Far from being incidental, it was a calculated public relations strategy — and a smart one. His arrival offers a revealing lesson in sports branding, celebrity capital and the globalisation of lower-league football.

Snoop Dogg’s minority investment in Swansea City, announced in July 2025, triggered an immediate surge of interest in a Championship club that has struggled for visibility since relegation from the Premier League in 2018. Swansea have spent years trying to stabilise themselves financially and culturally outside the glare of the top flight.

The club’s chief executive, Tom Gorringe, has been candid about these constraints. Swansea needed fresh revenue streams and renewed attention. Snoop’s social media reach — more than 100 million followers across platforms, including more than 88.5 million on Instagram — offered exactly that.

Rapper Snoop Dogg’s minority investment in Swansea City triggered an immediate surge of interest in the Welsh football club that has struggled for visibility. This is why it matters

That kind of reach acts as a multiplier. Every post, every appearance, exposes the club to audiences traditional marketing budgets could never reach. Nowhere is that more valuable than in the US, a market long targeted by British clubs but notoriously difficult for smaller sides to penetrate in any meaningful way.

The effect was almost immediate. Ticket demand spiked ahead of Swansea’s match against Preston on February 24, the first widely publicised fixture attended by Snoop. The club opened additional sections of the ground to accommodate a crowd of 20,233. This was an unprecedented move in recent years. What would normally have been a modest second-tier fixture, sold out. It became one of the largest attendances in recent Swansea history.

Celebrity endorsements in sport are nothing new. Yet, the pairing of a West Coast rapper with a West Wales Championship club is less random than it first appears. Snoop’s public persona dovetails neatly with Swansea’s self-image. He has described the city as “proud”, “working class” and “an underdog that bites back, just like me.”

That underdog identity carries weight in Welsh sport. Whether in football or rugby, Wales often frames itself as resilient, defiant and collectively driven when competing against wealthier or more populous opponents. The emotional logic fits. And in modern sporting PR, emotional authenticity matters more than cynical brand alignment.

There is another advantage. Snoop’s presence humanises the club’s ownership structure. Since November 2024, following a takeover, Swansea’s central decision-makers have been two American businessmen. For many supporters, overseas ownership can feel distant and abstract. A globally recognised cultural figure who turns up at games, posts enthusiastically and participates in club promotions offers something more tangible.

No magic bullet

Still, this is no magic bullet. Snoop Dogg’s investment is relatively modest. Swansea remain bound by financial regulations and the economic realities of the Championship. Celebrity attention can amplify a brand, but it cannot increase recruitment budgets or guarantee promotion. If results falter, media interest will cool.

Within those limits, however, Swansea appear to be maximising what celebrity PR can offer. The club is not claiming that Snoop will transform its fortunes overnight. Instead, it is treating his global cultural capital as a strategic asset in an unequal league ecosystem where visibility itself has value.

His involvement also reflects a broader shift in how football clubs operate. Increasingly, they exist at the intersection of sport, entertainment and global media. Ownership is no longer just about balance sheets. It shapes narrative, perception and the way fandom itself is constructed.

In that sense, Swansea are doing more than enjoying a surreal headline. They are experimenting with identity. They are attempting to reposition themselves within a crowded, rapidly evolving football mediascape.

It is also telling that the club’s other celebrity co-owners, American lifestyle personality Martha Stewart and Croatian footballer Luka Modrić, have not generated similar column inches. Clearly, not all celebrities are equal.

Swansea City, to their credit, seem to understand where the real leverage lies. By directing the PR spotlight squarely at Snoop Dogg, they have recognised that brand alignment works best when it feels culturally coherent. In football, as on the pitch, timing and positioning matter. Get them right, and even a Championship club can land a global headline.

The writer is Senior Lecturer in Sports Communication and Public Relations at Swansea University in the UK

Republished from The Conversation

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 19th, 2026