Day 25: King Dare Adegbola #MyMBBSJourney

I can remember when I saw my name on the unilag website, I made the merit list after few years “JAMBing”. I was so excited. Studying medicine was all I ever wanted after secondary school. Even my Dad convinced me of trying another course telling me there is no course that I can’t succeed with but I insisted on MEDICINE not because I love caring for people but just because they say medicine is hard and I just wanted to experience what it feels like and trust me I was in for it.

100 level was quite fun for me. I can remember vividly my first lecture at DLI, the whole place was rowdy just to sign attendance after the first lecture. The issue of class rep came up, then I thought to myself I think I have interest in this. All interested candidates came out and told to give an impromtu manifesto. Sure I did come out. I never knew I could come up with such a nice speech in a few minutes. Guess what, I won the election and behold I was d class rep. I really enjoyed it tho. It was quite challenging because of the nature and population of the class but it had an advantage which I loved, I never needed to make friends, everyone became my friend ‘who would not want to have a good rapport with this nice guy class rep *winks eye*’
But in all I will say my 100 level was just for playing and of course class rep duty. I never read much since I heard we just needed a minimum of 40 in the three major branch of
science- physical, chemical and biological.
I eventually crossed to college of medicine and got into it. Let the school pass through me and also pass through school was my CMUL mantra. Was a class rep, house of lord member and also an exco in d muslim student society. I hardly had enough time to play around, if I was not busy with class rep duties, its house of lord meeting or reading in class. Then medical school began showing me its real self, failing incourses back to back, recovered a little in 3rd incourse and 4th incourse then pros came. I did the exam and was expectant of a good result at least. I hardly fail exams even if I don’t study much, I always pass. Then it came, Biochemistry gave me a jab. I had to prepare for resit. I was very sure I was going to pass because it was only a course. I did pass then moved on to 300 level.

I still did not learn my lesson to put more time to my books. I continued as class rep and was also a compssa executive. Loaded myself with activities, I could remember not going to school for a whole week because of compssa health week. I wasn’t reading as I supposed, busy with one activity or the other. Incourses were not smiling and still never noticed the warning signs. Pros result came, I passed just one out of the five courses. Had 4 resits. I felt I could read all 4 and pass then resit result came out, failed pharmacology and microbiology that’s when it dawned on me that I had really messed up. Worst feeling ever, having to repeat a class. Not a good feeling seeing your mates move on to clinical class while one is still stuck in basic medicals. But I had no choice had to face it head on.
I made up my mind, no more school activity, no more compssa, no more class rep. I decided to dedicate all my time and energy to my academics, strictly academics. Promised myself that I’ll get the best out it. Well i passed d two courses responsible for me repeating and I moved on to clinical class.

Here comes compssa elections again. A part of me wanted to contest but just thought to myself again, I really needed to face my books squarely so I exed d idea.
400 level was cool for me and that was when I decided to start making decisions on my career. My first choice of specialty was neurosurgery but after talking to a lot of residents, consultants and few of my experience in the posting, I realised surgery was not at par with my life goals. Then the confusion of career path started.

500 level was community health, another interesting class. One way or the other I found my self into taking up roles again, group leader. It happen that the class rep and deputy was in my group, Funmi and Leke, they already have enough on their hands to handle so I took on the role of group leader, quit challenging but I was able to bond more with people in class. I think at this juncture I’ll like to add how I met Pero, part of my medical school story and also because she is the blog owner. We were in community health department’s ICH building when I sat beside Banji and this quiet dark skinned lady named Pero. Need to say hear that since I joined the class in 300 level, I don’t know most people in class, 500 level was an opportunity for me to do so. Me, Banji and Pero had a chat briefly before I had to leave to make some photocopies. On my way back, I heard the class has been moved to new great hall but I had to go back to ICH to get my bag. On getting there the class was empty and could not find my bag. So I went to new great hall asking around who my bag could be with and behold Pero helped me with it without telling her to. I was pleased and thanked her. But I noticed this newly found friend of mine only said a few words whenever I saw her in class, so I decided to be a little close to her to know her better. But trust me, it was the other way round. Pero likes gist. *smiles*

Back to my story.

600 level came again, the almighty 600 level, I made up my mind that I am going to pass once and put all my energy into this final year. It was very challenging. My 600 level story would not be complete without me mentioning someone who came from being a friend to a sister, Yetunde Agbeja. Someone that was an integral part of my success in final year. I could remember when we were in 300 level, Yetunde could be very annoying even tho we get along once in a while in some group discussions we had. My first posting was medicine and we were in the same unit, that was how the friendship that turned to bond started, I got to understand her better. I could sometimes be lackadesical but Yetunde pushed me real hard and I’ll forever be grateful. She gave me that extra push which was very key because final year was not just about reading but also being smart.
I worked myself out. Forming different group discussions combined with the responsibility of group rep. I gave my all to the extent that if I had any resit, I’ll just collapse because I never want to fail any exam again in medical school. After my last osce paper, that was it, I was finally done, I was very excited. I got to my room, prayed and really thanking God. Tears fell down my eyes when in my room, why? I deprived my self a lot of things just because I wanted to pass once, pushed my self to the limit couple with the fear of the unexpected. If I was told there is a million naira price money, trust me I would not have prepared any better. It was a crazy class. Plenty of reading, calls, tutorials and so on.
I’ll like to mention a few those who made my 600 level a success, Tolu Adebeshin (too much hyperstuff ginger) Sike (boo boo), Tosin Adepoju (my one on one reading partner), Teju Adedokun (intermittent stuff mover), Seun Uthman (Seun’s voice *please come and teach me what you read*) and Mrs Adams-Alliu.
I thank God I’m done with medical school, preparing for the next phase of my life.