If you are on a pre-med track, you understand the level of difficulty and strain the course work can cause. Everyday, my morning routine is the same... I get up, attend my morning classes and get out of morning classes just to head straight to the library to study what I just learned. By the time I've studied long enough to slightly understand the material it's about time to attend my 3 p.m. class. And this isn't including the nights that I'll literally stay up until 6 a.m. studying, and then start all over again. My point is, wanting to be in the medical field is extremely hard, and it's just getting started.
It was my junior year of high school when I first decided that I wanted to be a surgeon. And to be honest, I didn't really try in high school. I had a natural draw to education and found that work was easy without studying anything. Not to say that I ever failed, but I definitely didn't get A's often. Despite this, I decided that this is what I would spend the next 12-15 years working towards. I had high confidence, and faith that God would guide me down the right path, until I told one of my teachers what I planned on becoming. All of the students were gathered in class to talk about what we wanted to do with our lives, and being that this teacher was also a black woman, I expected nothing but support from her.
When she heard me talking about being a surgeon, her reaction was more than baffling to a 16-year-old sharing her life dream. I can never forget how she reacted and the smug face she made at me. In front of about five other students, she told me, "You're going to have to do a lot better in your classes, if you want to do that." This comment shaped the way that I look at criticism to this day. Granted I wasn't a horrible student -- teachers loved me. From that point on, I was determined to move past those who had no faith in me. By my senior year, I worked hard to bring my GPA up and had also managed to bring my class rank up by almost 40 people. By graduation, I was certain that all I needed to do in college was study.
But boy was I wrong.
Freshman year I learned that studying was absolutely necessary, and was something needed to do in order to pass every class. I had the common misconception that if I studied everything, I'd get a solid A+. That idea was so far from the truth, it's not even funny. There were days that I spent eight hours studying and barely passed. This lifestyle put so much stress on me, that by my third month of college, I was on the verge of breaking down every night before a quiz. It was the first time that I'd felt like a failure and thought maybe my eyes was bigger than my brain. But then, one night, as I was praying in my bed, I heard something that changed my life. I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me, urging me to fast. Now, this wasn't the first time that I'd heard from God, nor was it the first time that I was instructed to fast. (Note: fasting was always hard for me because I really love food.) Even though I knew it was going to be a tough three days, I was obedient. I spent the following days before my test in prayer, continuously studying and eating only fruits and veggies when I was starving. And needless to say, when you follow the orders of Christ, you will be lead in the right direction. For the first time, I felt hopeful about my major again.
Making only two points shy from an A, I was ready to fast every weekend before a test.
This marked the first lesson of this journey. One I'd like to title, "Depend on Christ always." Which makes sense for what I want to do. If I don't depend on God during the baby steps of Pre-Med, then how will I depend on Him during my first surgery?
I know that God has perfectly designed each of our lives and that we are destined to succeed.
