“And here I am, slowly drifting away from everything, I once claimed to love”
It’s 5 am on a cold morning, I should be sleeping under a warm blanket but here I am, sited by my desk, trying to study for my upcoming exams but my mind kept on drifting away. It’s a schedule I’m beginning to get used to, no thanks to LBS.
Am I complaining? Maybe a little.
Randomly, I just thought about my friend, Aminat. She’s a final-year medical student preparing for her final exams; her third professional MB BS examination. I knew she’d be up studying so, I gave her a call.
The call lasted for several hours. After exchanging pleasantries, Aminat went on to narrate her experiences while counting down on her last days in medical school.
The exams involved three courses; Community health, Medicine & Surgery all of which must be passed to be certified.
It was cumbersome seeing as she had only a week to revise as opposed to the traditional two weeks for revision, I felt for her.
The exam was now in 2days, and she still had so much to revise. She talked about how she’s had to burn the midnight candle to cover her syllabus. Knowing how much she loves a good night rest, I felt for her, I couldn’t begin to imagine how my exams would be since it is also coming up in two days and I have a lot of projects to work on.
Sleep isn’t the only thing Aminat had to curb, she had to give up on home-cooked meals for takeouts thereby converting the time normally spent cooking, studying. We ended our conversation by encouraging each other and looking forward to our next conversation which would be after her exams.
I called Aminat the weekend after her exams. At the time, she was done with her written papers and was left with the Clinical aspects of the examination, something she called OSCE- Objective Structured Clinical Examination & Viva-voce. According to her, clinical exams were her forte hence, she was in a calm & relaxed state knowing that the tasking aspects of the exam were done & dusted.
After the gist of how the exams went during the week, we chatted about the activities she had lined up following the completion of her exams. She enthusiastically highlighted all the fun & relaxation activities she looked forward to. She deserves all that pampering after seeing how hard she worked through the course of her medical school journey especially these last days in the College of Health Sciences.
It’s a popular saying that whatever has a beginning, has an ending. Aminat excitedly gave me a call after her final examination marked as a viva voce exam. I was filled with joy, hearing her scream and cheer happily for hurray, after seven years of med school training, she was finally done!
This led me to think about how I looked forward to the day I would write my last paper in LBS. Because honestly, I miss my life. I can’t imagine repeating this same routine for the next two years. I am swamped already thinking about it.
“Every story has an end but in life, every end is a new beginning