The Bachelors in Medicine and Bachelors in Surgery (MBBS) exams is a pivotal milestone in the journey of every medical student, it is a professional qualification that certifies a student is ready to move on to clinical classes and become a doctor. This high -stakes exams evoke a mix of emotions: anxiety, fear, anticipation, and hope for many students, the (MBBS) exams represent a defining moment, one that can make or break their dreamscape of becoming a medical professional. Months, even years of intense preparation precede the exams. Students pour over textbooks, attend lectures ,participate in group studies and practice with sample questions .The pressure to perform is palpable, with students often sacrificing sleep, social life, and personal interest to stay focused on their goal.
To inspire students to move beyond their setbacks meet Sunday Nantap Kodi a 600 level students of medicine who refused to let setback hold her back despite facing challenges in her (MBBS) journey, she persevered, repeated a year and emerge stronger. You might want to say is she the first to experience this setback? The answer is no! But how many of them come out to explain boldly what the experience feels like, how they overcame and how they were determined to support others that may be victim or are victims of this setback already .To understand how she was able to overcome this setback we will see how she perceive the setback, how her family, community(Friends ,pastor, class mates) played a role in her life, and steps or patterns she adopted to excel.
The major challenge she faced was fitting into a new class with different people rather than her mates. Adapting to the new class and classmates was very difficult and at some point she began to lose interest in school started becoming a backbencher ,she didn’t want to associate. She just wanted to write her exams and go. It was not easy because they were a lot of struggles like: a lecturer referring to her and others that were victims which was demining .She became distance from everyone and depressed but at this point in her life she feels if she goes back there again she will handle it a lot better. Considering the fact that she trailed the path of great success through secondary school and wasn’t expecting any form of failure made her more confused on where she got it wrong.
Family, community (friends, pastor, and classmates) are very important in every phase of our life and we can’t keep them outside. Nantap’s family played a pivotal role in helping her through that difficult time they supported her with love and never used this failure against her, but rather encouraged her, which helped her heal faster. She also recognizes the support of Pastor Dr Joshua Agunbaide of the publisher’s house who also supported her without judging her; he’s Doctor so he taught her physiology and give her a different perspective about the course which she fell in love with.
She praised the community that she was blessed with in this phase of her life, because nobody should go through failure alone, one is not supposed to be an island. There’s also a tendency to hide oneself but no! First of all you don’t know what you did wrong at first so how do you help yourself do better, be more open to help and community. They were different people at that phase in my life that helped me do better.
In the journey to overcome the setback she had to adapt to some habits that made her understanding sharper. Initially she mostly did her learning, studies alone, but along the run she had to adopt to group discussion which made her read with a whole lot of different people who she did he didn’t know, Knowing fully well that others are doing better is okay to learn from them even though they are just your class mate at least it’s an opportunity to be the best.
She started discussing more, accepting help from her classmate and she used a lot of videos to learn because she didn’t apply so much of that in 200 level, and discovered she learned more visually, because text books were most times boring she used “NINJA NERD” videos ,which helped her create vivid images of what she was learning. At this point she was willing to be embarrassed as far as she was learning. She also took the step of shutting down when things become stressful and overwhelming so she could refresh and think.
The determination to get it right came as a result of the failure and her dream to bring solution to the world’s problems; this was her first failure so she proposed in her heart that this will be the last time she will write it. This her determination brought about her success story ,she was grateful to God but the same time not as happy as she should be, because she had gone through so much emotionally.
This set back has made her see people with the same struggle and offer them grace; failure does not stop you from succeeding. Because you failed a class does not mean you keep failing, this setback has made her understand that failure does not define her neither success, you can only choose which of them happens. She also got something interesting that changed her whole perspective, ‘that her whole existence is built around medicine.
During this period she was able to diversify and do something she was interested in like hair making, which has helped her so much financially. There will be fear at some points on how to navigate being a medicine student and making money ,but you won’t know if you don’t try .So this phase of my life helped me to balance my school and other skills, now I can maximize my time and be accountable for it.
In conclusion a lot of people cannot relate to failure so there is a tendency to blame the victim. But life will get better you just have to survive because you will not know if tomorrow will get better if you don’t survive today. Accept the failure as part of life, fighting yourself each day won’t change the situation rather look for how failure can redefine you. Failure in exams does not mean you’ve failed in life. Accepting failure and making the most of it is what matters more. Nantap’s inspiring story showcases the power of resilience determination and self-awareness .Her journey reminds us that setbacks are temporary but with courage and perseverance, we can overcome them and achieve success.
“The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time every time we fall” Nelson Mandela.
Report and Photos by Mudan Delman Ebenezer
Edited by Israel Fakwagh Ciboh
