At the Crossroads

Sometimes in life we reach cross roads, we have to make up our mind and define the course of our destiny. Last year at about a time like this, I was faced with such a dilemma. Having done well in my high school exams, opportunities presented themselves to go and study abroad. Of great interest were the Ivy League schools in the United States, everyone was for the idea but I paused and decided to give it a thought. Going to the US was going to compromise my dream of studying medicine. I know of friends who went but settled for different lines of career other than their true aspirations and wishes. I don’t know whether I was informed enough but for sure I had to settle for something different and then later apply to medical school should I have gone to the States. Was everything going to turn out the way I expected in the long run? I am a risk taker, but then was this risk too much or uncalculated? Was I foregoing a lifetime opportunity? I don’t know, all I know is that I was following my path of vocation.

After a series of thoughts and thoughts I decided to stay behind amid the woes that came with it. I believed I would further my studies abroad when the time came. Medicine as a career has always been my interest since time immemorial; I would not compromise it for any other career, no not me. If you are faced with such dilemmas in life, go for your dreams, they will make you happier. Passion is very important for any field that one engages in. Many of my friends dropped out of medical school as early as the first month, I don’t blame them anyway, they discovered way too early that medicine was not their line of interest. Funnily enough, when I thought of studying medicine, I had no patient in mind. What I had in mind was the mystery of what lies underneath the skin, the origin of life, its nature and its ills. It was more of curiosity than any other thing. I later realized that there is that human aspect of medicine that any doctor needs to acknowledge and respect. This part disengages science and curiosity and becomes an art. This is why I love this art that turns out to be a science.

To those who were disappointed in me for my decision or indecision, please bear with me. My dreams of becoming a physician are greater than me and so I have no choice but to follow them faithfully. The scalpel is my source of joy and happiness and whenever I see it, I feel a tingling sensation in my body urging me to do great things, to solve medical mysteries and to go deep into the skin and discover the complexity and simplicity of the most amazing piece of engineering –the human body. Surely, God is the greatest engineer of all times.He knew about friction and made joints with synovial fluid, He knew about buoyancy and made the brain to float in a fluid, he knew about impact and made the skull different bones joined together…these among others show that God was a physicist.

I will go to the states all the same, not now, not tomorrow either, but when the right time comes to go and learn with the best at the cutting edge of knowledge. My greatest dream however, is to go to the royal college of surgeons and sharpen my scalpel and to gather experience. For sure, dreams will take me there…

Advertisement