Not Below Par

It's a Sunday, the first day of the week. After a night's sleep, I wake to the official start of my preclinicals, almost like the official beginning of this medical journey. This past first year was a period of preparation and conditioning for what is to come: the lectures, the practical sessions and report writing, a test for each course, all of it training for the task ahead.

Before I resumed, I wrote that it's not merely how far one has come, but also how well one has done. Looking back now, the "well" is not too good, but definitely not bad, and there's always room for improvement.

Of course, I had read, watched and listened to stories and essays about the nature and topography of this journey. I was cognizant of the contours, and alhamdulillah, it wasn't so sloppy, but we're catching up. It was a case of preparation meeting expectation. I hope to make it better or, worst case, keep it so.

As a student with no prior exposure to further maths, differentiation and integration appeared alien. Believing that one's background is no excuse to pull one back to the ground, I learned and re-learned. The real challenge began after I had understood a little of differentiation, because integration seemed to be unlearning everything I had just learnt: the methods reversing, the cases running in the opposite direction. It was a trans-learning phase. Alhamdulillah, it went well.

Of course, I have mates who know what's being taught. Some get the concept while the class is going on, others only after they study, and some are good at consulting the library textbooks. Omo, so many kinds of intelligence in one room. So I have to set my own pace, with the classes, the study and the methods, but I must be sure that it is effective and efficient, and that my pace is not below par.

I chose a field with no example from my town that I could point to, no one to say "it is possible." We were many with this dream. Many couldn't actualize it, others changed course, but there are many like us who need an example, at least someone to set the pace so others can follow. They need to witness it, and not only hear that it can be done, even from the little space we come from.

Every achievement of a goal is the base for another. The boy studied and prayed, and common entrance was good. That goal birthed another: sit the SSCE once. When the time came, it was a success. The UTME struggles followed, then the switch to a CHEW diploma, and a distinction. Another goal again. MBBS gotten. Don't score less than a C, to qualify for preclinicals. That too achieved, and without a single C in the whole year, and here we are again, with yet another goal...

®Ahmed Salim Jn ✍️ 

#Uloko