The next decade....what's in store?

An honest assessment of one's self

Went to the hospital to return an item I had borrowed from the goodly doc today. On the way downstairs, I saw a nursing student from Northern Caribbean University (the uni is based in central Jamaica). She came in the lift (that's elevator to the Americans) with me, so as I am known to do, I said hello and asked her why she chose nursing.

She said "it's the next best thing."
I said "you mean next best to being a doctor?".
She said yes, then she said "mediocrity".
I had by this began to ask her why she didn't go ahead and do medicine. So the "mediocrity" tag was referring to herself.
So I said "oh, you were mediocre. Why?"
She said "I don't know....I guess I'm just lazy sometimes." I said to her "I certainly can identify with that."

My undergraduate degree was just that. Mediocre. Still, I ended up with an Upper Second Class Honours which I don't think I deserved because I did diddly squat. Anyway, and older, wiser Yamfoot decided to aim for higher heights when she did the masters 12 years later. The aim was a distinction, and the aim was achieved. Did I mention that myself and Safari were two out of only 14 students out of about 150 who got distinctions?

If there is hope for me, then there is hope for this young nursing student. I just hope she turns out to be a super nurse, and is then motivated to go on to study medicine. But I just thought it was good that she was so honest with herself. You gotta own your problems, faults, etc.

Posted by yamfoot at October 31, 2005 11:11 PM