Alhamdulillah. I have finally graduated from medical school. Finally. 5 years which felt like forever. 5 years of blood, sweat and tears (Yes. all, literal).
Tears that came out when I found out that I passed were tears of relief more than happiness. Like finding an oasis in a desert, that kind of feeling? Rather than a story of success, mine is actually a story of one failure after another and how Allah helps me and sends people into my life to help me overcome my failures.
5 years ago, I was contemplating whether I should give up on my dream of becoming a doctor because the fees were too expensive. But I applied anyway after deciding that I shouldn’t deny myself an education just because of family circumstances. Nobody should. I didn’t qualify for any form of help from Mendaki so I applied to a lot of scholarship bodies and went for one interview after another. Being rejected by Mendaki was probably my biggest blessing in disguise because I wouldn’t have found the OCBC bond-free scholarship which covers some of my fees and allowance. Thank you so much OCBC Scholarship committee. Thanks to you, I was able to travel for study and for leisure, to places such as Brunei, Turkey, Korea, Japan and perform my Umrah. Some kind strangers who heard my story even contacted me and reached out to me and some wrote in to newspaper forums. May Allah reward all of you.
To my family, I’m sorry I took so long to graduate, but I did it now. I will always remember how my uncles and aunts took us in when we had no place to stay. Will I ever get to repay such kindness? And who says my family is incomplete? They are enough for me.
To my friends who listened to all my frustrations and my worries, I wish I was a better friend to all of you. Sometimes when I get too caught up in school/hospital, I forgot to ask how you ladies have been doing with your lives. Thank you for praying for me and encouraging me to persevere. You all know who you are. I love all of you.
To all the patients I’ve met, the makciks, pakciks, uncles and aunties, young and old that has cheered me on and even raised their hands to make du’a for me, thank you for reminding me why I chose this profession. To everybody else who has motivated me in one way or another, thank you.
And lastly, to my mother Jamalia Shariff who is my biggest fan and kept all these newspaper articles from long ago, thank you…for everything. All these years that was painful for me must have been more difficult for you. I am especially sorry to you that you had to wait for so long for me to graduate. Ever since you became a single parent when I was 12, I’ve learnt to be independent with the intention of not wanting to burden you. But I didn’t realise that my independence is at times a source of worry for you, especially being the youngest and the only girl in the family. But it seems like I got my strength from you, right? I will be better in the future, InsyaAllah. Today, you turn a year older, so my graduation is my birthday present to you. Happy Birthday and I pray that Allah bless you with a long and healthy life. Ameen. Terima Kasih Mak. Selamat Hari Jadi. Sayang Mak.
During my Medicine admission interview, my interviewers asked, “You’ve led such a hard life, if we accept you into Medicine, are you sure you can endure more years of hardships?”. So I said, “Precisely because I’ve had a hard life, which is why I think I’ll be able to endure what is to come. And I’m not going to go through it alone because I have so many people behind me.” And that was exactly what medical school was; hard. But when I fall, Allah brings me back up. He taught me humility through my failures. And I know that things will get tougher when I start working in one month’s time (you can look for me in CGH), but I have so many people counting on me that I have to keep going. I want to be the kind of doctor that everyone wants me to be. InsyaAllah. Please make du’a for me.
(the articles was from 8 and 4 years ago.)
Source: Mumtaz Yusoff
