Evolution of my life’s journey

I’ve dreamt of being a doctor since I was a child. I know, cliché, but stick with me. I believe most kids grow up thinking the same thing I was thinking. Most of the ones I grew up with did. But that’s the interesting thing about those childhood aspirations- half the time, they’re based on what the majority of the other kids want to be when they grow up, and 80% of the time, that’s a medical doctor.

I carried this follow passion from childhood somewhere into adolescence where I was starting to gain a bit more clarity about myself. But still, I wanted to be a doctor.

I didn’t take my high school days serious though, so I didn’t get the grades to go to medical school when I wrote WASSCE. If I was just a tiny bit serious, getting the grades would’ve been super easy for me. But I’ve always faced the challenge of what’s good for me too late. I know myself, and I know that academics has never been a problem for me. I’m both book smart and other smarts, but I have never been able to focus on what’s necessary at a time when it’s necessary, so naturally, I fall average in most academic jurisdictions. Anyways, because I wasn’t able to make it into medical school, the next best option (to me) was Biochemistry. The plan was to go to medical school after Biochemistry, so I did Biochemistry as a sort of a premed.

Again whiles in Uni, I didn’t really take things serious. Maybe that was because I knew the requirement to get into medical school from University was a second class upper (2:1) and that was easy peezy. Or maybe I just didn’t have a clearly thought out goal. Whichever it is, it doesn’t matter cos I graduated Uni with a second class upper.

After graduation is when a lot of things changed

I graduated a year earlier than most of my friends because most of them did diplomas before they started their Bscs. So here I was, out here in the real world alone. No friends, no classmates to watch to feel safe in the “we” bubble. I went through a series of what I like to describe as self-discovery phases and reality checks, finding out more about myself and how the world works as the days turned into weeks and into months, and 2 years now. Lol

Eventually, I had to come to terms with the fact that even though I like medicine, it might not be for me. And this was for a variety of reasons.

First, I realized I didn’t have the financial background to be able to support myself through it, and neither does my family. We could barely afford my fees for my recently completed Bsc. On average, it’ll cost somewhere around $2000 in fees for every year I spend in med school. Add living expenses and housing to it, and that should bring the gross to somewhere around $3000 per year. This is just not feasible looking at my and my family’s finances.

An alternative to afford it would be to seek out local scholarships, but with the way even scholarship boards are politically influenced these days, I doubt I’ll get one if I tried.

Secondly, it turns out my passion has evolved a lot over the years. I realized that whiles I love medicine, I love teaching a lot more, and it’s actually something I’m good at. I also realized I love research. I can’t say I’m good at research right now, but I know I like solving problems, and research for the most part involves that (and more, I know).

Knowing these two, I realized the best career to pursue would be in academia as a professor. This is a long (probably frustrating path) but I know myself and I’ve learnt that as long I like something, I will withstand anything and excel at it too. Where am I currently is no where close to where I want to get. But the important thing is I’m getting close to it, morphing the skills and experience required to get there into my persona and CV every chance I get.

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