Ralu lazily dragged herself out of bed after the third alarm had gone off. It was 6:30am but the weather was already soo hot. As usual, there was no light which was the new ‘norm’ every Monday morning in Unilorin College of Health Sciences . As she knelt beside her bed to say her morning prayer, her thoughts flashed back to her first Histology class where the Professor talked about how easy it was to excel in medical school. Things were ‘easier’ owing to internet, the World Wide Web and in recent times, Artificial Intelligence. He was of the opinion that there was no reason to fail, when all the information was at their disposal. Ralu remembers believing him, she was naive to the ways of the school and was determined to make the best results. The plot twist came as a shock to her when first  semester wasn’t all she had hoped for. Adapting posed a bigger challenge than she expected. The network was terrible, there were no hangout spots to chill, transportation was a struggle on most days and the never ending issues in her  hostel wasn’t helping matters, 

Ralu discovered her lack of proper time management quite late and after her first exam, she found herself praying not to have a carry over. How did she even get here? Expectations from home were choking, her Parents weren’t even understanding, it felt like life had been rigged against her and she was struggling to break free. Some of her mates seemed to have it all figured out, they were doing excellently and couldn’t relate to all the problems she had.

        Things only began to make sense in the 1st semester of 300level after she sought help, pause to rediscover herself and stopped making excuses. After speaking to different seniors in her department who were doing well, she discovered that excelling truly wasn’t so hard. She hardly ever procrastinated, attended all lectures dutifully and read every single day. Every morning she’d get up, take a bath, put on her blue scrubs paired with white crocs and head to the clinic till 2 then attend lectures from 2pm-6pm without complaining. Of course there were those days when she’d forget herself and slack off a bit, but they seldom came.

It had become clear, the sacrifices she had to make now for the ‘soft’ life she wanted in the future. As ‘ordinary’ as it was to do well, it required a lot of discipline, hardwork, commitment and dedication. Ralu had now mastered the art of blocking distractions. She no longer spent long hours on TikTok, Instagram and all her favourite social media apps. The only bad habit she hadn’t conditioned her mind to stop was constantly drifting off to her thoughts while praying in the morning like she was doing presently. 

“Snap back to reality Ralu!” she muttered under her breath. Her thoughts had taken her away for about 15 minutes (sigh!). With renewed zeal, present day Ralu felt ready to face the new week head on. She’ll first have to start by taking her bucket to fetch water downstairs. The struggle continued…