"You are the first colleague I’ll be meeting who does not want to cross over to medicine out of more than two hundred students in both anatomy and physiology." I said to Tolu amusingly, my friend, who expressed a difference from the common opinion of being among the top twenty students to be selected for a crossover to medicine. It was the practice of the faculty to select the best twenty students after the freshman year of college from the combination of anatomy and physiology students. It was undeniable that some students studying medicine would be withdrawn due to their inability to meet the required academic standard.
Usually, many students apply to study medicine in Nigeria, and those that are unable to meet the requirements for medicine or are not considered due to space are given related courses such as anatomy and medicine to study. The provision to crossover the best twenty students from either department was a marathon that almost every freshman was willing to engage in, except Tolu, who said otherwise (and unfortunately, got weeded out also from the physiology she got admitted for, perhaps as a result of a difference in purpose). Would you blame anyone if there was an opportunity to study medicine after the freshman year? This actually got me discouraged at some points because the prize was way too expensive and limited for the number of interests.
"MJ (a nickname I was called), we can do this. We just need to study extra hard." My friend, David, encouraged us. We were five in the study group, and we devoted our time to reading.
At the end of freshman year, two of us out of the five in the study group were considered for medicine, and I happened to be the twentieth person. It was a prayer answered, even though my hopes had hit the wall at some points.
"The journey has just begun; it’s a different ball game now. The men have been separated from the boys!" David said this as we headed to the orientation hall for second-year medical students. We had heard scary tales of students being weeded out at each stage, and a few had developed mental disorders in the process. Despite winning the prize of crossing over to medicine, it seemed to me that I had bitten off more than I could chew. Entering the orientation hall with David, where other colleagues were, the hall was full, and we were just in time as the anchor began to lecture and affirm some of the stories we heard.
"Excuse me?" David’s voice interrupted the speaker. "What makes people fail while studying medicine?" he asked after he was given the floor to speak. This particular question generated mixed reactions as the hall quivered in unanimous fear and fainted.
The speaker smiled and silenced us so he could respond to David’s question.
"You should rather ask what makes people excel while studying medicine. Your focus should be on those who are succeeding, not those who have failed. This way, you will have a successful path to walk on," he replied, which immediately spiced the hall with encouragement as thunderous claps of affirmation ensued.
This was all the motivation I needed to have a different perspective as my spirit got relieved from its flood of tension—a reminder that I could have a different story from the scary tales I heard about the course in medicine.