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- Anyone who has been through gap year knows that it is one of the toughest years in your life as a student. It becomes difficult to get back on your knees and start studying again after going through the trauma of failing MDCAT. However, the good news is, you can utilize this time in a lot of positive ways and come out successful at the end. There are many examples of such students who did not let this one set back affect their future and fought all the challenges successfully. One such example is a brilliant student from Nishtar Medical University, whose story we're sharing in this article. She couldn't score enough in MDCAT at first attempt and had to take a gap year. During the very tough year, she discovered a lot about herself, took time for self-reflection, gave her life a new start and finally managed to secure a seat in MBBS.
- Here's how she tells her story:
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- آتا ہے جو طوفاں آنے دو، کشتی کا خدا خود حافظ ہے
- مشکل تو نہیں ان موجوں میں، بہتا ہوا ساحل آ جائے !
- Shout-out to all the repeaters out there! I know it hurts! It really hurts when you see your fellows enjoying their lives institutions that you dreamt of getting into. I remember those days clearly. I had put my friends' WhatsApp status on mute. I used to spend hours staring at the walls of my room helplessly. There were days when there was literally no one around me who could understand what I was going through. During the three months of MDCAT preparation, I desperately prayed to God to be with my best friend in same medical college, to see 'that' smile on my parent's face, to achieve 'that' dream! The first MDCAT on 20th August was a wreck. I got 780. I tried to pretend everything is fine. I tried to avoid the anxiety and stress that came along. If anyone of you appeared for that MDCAT, you would remember it was all about "Tareekh pe tareekh". Later it got canceled. Even after getting 993 marks in FSc, I couldn't bring myself get over the trauma and ended up with a 911 in the reconduct exam. I wondered where did I go wrong, did I deserve this? ‘No’, that sound echoed "ALLAH sheh rag se ziyada qareeb hai".
- It was an altogether different chapter of my life. Repeat ka saal aap ko bht kuch sikhata hai! I saw the real faces of people. I got to know how sincere people around me, were with me. For years, I dreamt of getting admitted into King Edward Medical University. I was so passionate about it that I had included the word 'Kemcolian' in my signature. But I eventually learned that we don’t see the bigger picture. We have no idea whether we’re asking for the right thing or not.
- During the gap year, I had reached a point where I started believing that maybe I was not meant to become a doctor. Ye ALLAH k raaz hain, WO behtar janta hai! Next year, Before I appeared for the test on 23rd September, I said to my friend, ‘Bas ab wohi ho jae ALLAH chahta hai" and they say, "ALLAH kehta hai jab tum yeh keh do ke main Allah ki raza me raazi hoon- to wohi ho ga jo tum chaho gay, lekin hum bus ye kehtey nhi hain". This time, I got 978 and with an aggregate of 90.2%, I secured admission in Nishtar medical college. I remember my friend telling me "ab kisi ko pta na chaley k tum repeat kr k ayi ho" but no! This is not something to hide from people. If you have taken a gap year, faced the challenges, worked on yourself and came out successful, then congratulations, You've learned lessons that people learn very late in their lives.
- Summing up, here's a girl who's happily sitting in an institution that wasn't her first priority lekin "jo ALLAH ki raza hai, wo humari raza hai!"
- Regards,
- Marwah Asif Lodhi
- Nishtar Medical University
- Session: 2018-2023
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- Marwah has shown us that taking a gap year does not mean you're a failure. It's just that sometimes you have to take one step back in order to jump higher. As long as you don't let your hope die and you don't let yourself give up in the face of difficulties, you can never fail! Believe you can and you're half-way there.
