BOOK SMART OR LIFE SMART

Hi lovelies !!!!

I decided to do a blog hand over to a dear friend who’s a doctor by profession and I was opportune to work with for a while on the health desk. He’s quite an amazing dude and gosh , our first two weeks of working together was WAR!!! We were always arguing about any and everything possible. So I guess your wondering how on earth I allowed such an annoying guy into my blog space. Truth is we moved from being fight buddies to cool work partners. I dedicate this to any of you, who just like me, our parents wanted us to study medicine at some point in our lives.Enough of the gist, Over to you Prels…..

Hi Guys,

I am Prela, a medical doctor currently working in a TV station as a producer of a health show and Health Desk Lead. Before venturing onto this new task, which I find exciting, I was in the thick of medical practice, working as an Emergency health care Doctor. My reason for making this switch was purely to advance my career, as I am putting together pieces to create “my bigger picture”!

My journey to becoming a medical doctor is the least dramatic one you’d hear in a while. Even though I knew I was always going to be a “science student” i.e. physics – chemistry – biology type of student, in my head, I often swayed between being a Petroleum Engineer and a ‘Cardiovascular’ Surgeon. Mental images were often created: seeing myself walk in an oil rig inspecting valves and meters as well as standing hours on end with scalpels and sutures over opened chest cavities staring at beating hearts ( normal confusion of a fresh high school graduate). This apparent indecision was settled by my mom, who just grabbed my JAMB form and filled the course of study as MEDICINE. I accepted without hesitation or objection(truth be told, with my very Nigerian mum, I almost didn’t have a choice). That obviously put paid to my dream of one day being a top level employee of one of these international Oil companies in Nigeria. How sad!

My confused state

A typical medical student in the University of Port Harcourt feels like they are in the “Iraq” of university education: that they are studying the most difficult and turbulent course known to man. I felt the same way too! After all, if you can’t beat them, join them. The first days in school were joyous! No parents, no restrictions, all freedom. Being around non-medical students made me less inclined to classroom activities and tripled the joy I felt. Whatever motivation I had left to attend classes were snuffed out by the stuffy atmosphere and stench I got from attending early morning classes that were overflowing with human nostrils and armpits. I just couldn’t deal. A “classophobic” monster was born in me.

Medical student

I did not just let my life and time waste away, as I sought necessary course knowledge from extra mural classes which were more relatable and less crowded. This was my way around the rowdiness university school life presented. Of course, my grades could have been better, but I was not preoccupied with being a straight A student, but doing just enough to pass (medicine did not have a CGPA scoring system). Thank goodness for that (Lol). The extra time in my hands I spent playing video games, attending parties and goofing around. Yeah, I also argued a lot! (To those that often say I love to argue eg Irene, comman see where I sharpened those skills). Mid-way through my 7+ years in uni, friends with whom I got into uni were virtually on their way out and were ready to start life as adults. It got me thinking, what would my life be like after school? I knew I wouldn’t want to go to the same building every weekday for 15 – 20 years, whether a hospital or not. I had to set an agenda for myself. I went into deep thinking mode.

As a boy

I have always known that I am quite creative and that comes naturally to me. I also knew that I needed to decide whether I was going to be BOOK SMART OR LIFE SMART. I knew it had to be the latter. I knew that I had sorta ‘conquered’ the former and that I needed a new challenge. I knew that I needed to move beyond the pages of the books onto real things, that the era of data gathering and analysis was gone and it’s time for implementation. My agenda was set. Life smart I chose.

Now a man

Towards the end of my medical school days, I sought to come out of my shell. I got involved in friends’ business plans – developing and marketing products, wrote out a few of my own (my first by the way, still dazzles me) even though I did not implement any, I matured a lot from those acts, that would go on to form a tidy foundation that my life project would be built on. Out of the blue, I joined the race to run for my class’ Final Year Class activities chairperson. I got an awesome team behind me with whom I came up with a pretty robust manifesto and went about campaigning. I was clearly an underdog, because I was virtually absent in class up on till that time. Elections came, results released, I came a distant LAST position. But I learnt a lot from that and I never regretted my actions, as a matter of fact, I rarely regret my actions.

I AM Dr Prela 

At the end of my housemanship (internship) year at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital which was quite remarkable by the way, I was ready to go all out to achieve my life goals. I knew that my passions will eventually swallow up my profession and there’s nothing I would do to stop it, but I am still on the negotiating table with my passions, trying to plead for more time to ‘grow’ my career (hope I am able to get a good deal). The marriage of my passions and profession has taken me through rather ‘unholy’ places; from owning a footwear line, to being a medical podcast show host and now a producer of a medical show on TV. Who knows where next I would drift to? ( Irene kinda knows). To the random eye, this sounds confusing for a career path, but I’d say, it is a rather unconventional journey. Grab a pack of popcorn, let’s see where it ends….. I choose LIFE SMART!

Over to you Lady I......

Y'all kindly drop a comment on here for Doc.

Lady I