We are told repeatedly, 'You all filled your Jamb forms by yourselves' which I'm guessing we all did (hopefully). At times when listening to a boring lecture, I ponder and ask why anyone would voluntarily decide to choose and study a course that requires a lot of voluminous reading and assimilation. What kind of spirits inhabit us that day in, night out we trudge on trying to understand everything about the human body. This is no mean feat and I continuously wonder why we don't just give up.
           I try to justify that it's probably the monetary reward, but it isn't. An oil company worker could easily make more than a doctor without blinking an eye. A politician gets a doctor's yearly salary in like a month ...or less since this is Nigeria we are talking about. Really, it has to be beyond that. I still have no explanation beyond selfless service but that just isn't it as well.
            In a dark and twisted way, I see a lot of doctors and aspiring ones as sadists. I recall our first contact with cadavers. Before we even got into the lab, there was so much joy on faces that we were about to walk into a room filled with corpses on each table. This can't be normal, I thought to myself. We stepped into the room, and there was a scramble. Every one wanted to have the 'best' cadaver to work with. It was basically like a selection process. 'That one on table B is too skinny, barely any muscles. That one has a 6 pack. The one on table A is perfect'. I was beyond stunned. It was like we had all transformed into something else. What shocked me the most was that I was undergoing the transformation also. The human body in rigor mortis thrilled me beyond words. I wanted to explore, to palpate every part of the body. A few years ago, I shuddered to even look at a corpse on tv. It's all part of the transformation process I guess. Sometimes, I look at myself and wonder if I'll someday be the doctor with the stereotypical terrible writing. I guess, this is how it all begins.
       If there's anything I took out of the lab that day, it is that I learnt to value life more than anything. I look forward to other transformations as I'm sure my colleagues do. Most importantly, I look forward to one day saving a life with these hands that roam gleefully and wondrously over a corpse. The long years ahead which will be filled with studying would be worth it for just that. I hope this is not delusional.