2006/2007 is a year I will never forget. I started out in my first year in university studying medicine, my dream course. I was a Christian but at some point I strayed from the faith. I had good grades that took me to 200 level. Gradually, I found my way back to God. Just when I thought I had rediscovered my faith, I returned from a Mission Outreach organized by the University mission arm, after 200L “Comprehensive” exams, to meet the result that told me that I had failed out of Medical School. It was a terrible moment for me. I was a popular student which made it worse. The first person I called was my Dad and he told me to come home. 

My parents encouraged me and my mum’s exact words were, ‘’That medicine gan, is what you are going to study.” The failure didn’t dawn on me at first. However, a few hours later, text messages from my immediate past colleagues started flowing in and I realized my loss. I broke into tears, the kind of tears that can only be described as silent…painful…sorrowful…shameful. 

“So I’m not going to be a Medical Doctor? Is this how people fail out of school? How do I start again? Wasted year! And just when I wanted to return to God!” 

So many questions came calling and knocking at the door of my heart. This was my first experience of failing in life and it hit me real bad. I left home and returned to school. I stayed in my hostel all day, for the shame and fear of meeting familiar faces. 

That December, I stayed in school and didn’t go home. Alongside a few of my colleagues, I wrote a letter to the University Senate, appealing that we should be allowed to resit the exam. After a while, we were granted a pardon to do so (which is the first and only time this was done). I passed the exam after the resit and the rest is history. People say God will take you through places you don’t understand, just to bring you to the place He wants you to be. Despite several other challenges I went through in school, today, I’m a Medical Doctor, touching lives in my own sphere of influence.