If you have a dream or a goal. Keep pushing, you can make it.
Let me begin by saying, I am in no way at the end of my journey, nor am I even close. This is merely a collection of a few of my lowest lows and highest highs, thus far, in the hopes that you are encouraged to never give up. As the story progresses I’ll need you to keep three quotes in mind :
1. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” - The Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:13
2. “Success is not built on success. It is built on failure. It is built on frustration. It is sometimes built on catastrophe.” - Sumner Redstone
3. “ The heights that great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward through the night.” - Henry Wadsworth (Although I first thought it to be coined by my parents)
The third quote was not one I could relate to in my earlier years if I’m being real with you, so if you can’t relate, you’re not alone.
Let’s begin at my preschool graduation, where, at five years old I sang “When I grow older! I’ll be a doctor!! I think that’s very good!” We all had great big ambitions at that age, didn't we?… to be teachers, policemen, chefs, and so much more. Do you remember your childhood “dream job”? Well, mine stuck, I still want to be a doctor ‘when I grow up.’
In summary, throughout primary school, I loved to learn, every book that I could hold, I read and every word that I could learn, I learned. At seven years old, the movie 'Akeela and the Bee' had me reading the dictionary and scouring the country for spelling bees to attend, among which I’ve not missed a TWCU spelling bee from the moment I was old enough to enter until the moment I was too old to continue participating. Sounds like a recipe for success, right? Yet on the day of S.E.A. results, I hid from the world after failing to pass for any of my four secondary school choices.
Do you remember the second quote?… one failure down [insert infinite number] to go.
I got a transfer to Providence Girl’s Catholic School, where I met some of the most loving teachers that played a major role in shaping my character and ethics as a human being. This brings us to the third quote. Now, I LOVE to sleep.... and so as a teen, the words of Henry Wadsworth, consistently repeated to me by my parents were, for lack of a better word, annoying. After taking the 5:30 am bus to get to school and reaching home by 8 pm after lessons, how could they expect me to toil anywhere through the night? And so, I did no homework. My report cards constantly read “Sharifa has so much potential but she must do all assignments!”. These assignments turned into SBA’s that I struggled to submit on time and had it not been for my amazing educators, I would have thrown away my ability to excel at CSEC. I left Providence with six 1’s and three 2’s, allowing me to pursue CAPE at Bishop Anstey and Trinity College East Sixth Form (BATCE).
Fast-forwarding through my amazing sixth form experience, where I once again was blessed with wonderful teachers, the integration of my lack of time management, a busy schedule of school, lessons, extracurricular activities, and an extra subject ultimately led to me being rejected from The Faculty of Medical Sciences due to inadequate CAPE grades. I was an intern at TWCU the day I got my results, and I remember sitting in the bathroom on my lunch break, crying… I messaged my mom the following: ‘We are not going to be a doctor.’ A pep-talk later, I sat at the front desk after lunch. It was my sixth form principal that set me straight when I went to collect my result slip... after crying in her office, she laid out my options: do the N1 pre-science program at UWI, accept their offer to pursue my degree in Biomedical Technology or re-sit CAPE. I did N1.
Have you ever failed, been rejected, or felt to give up altogether? You are not alone!! We all have these experiences, it’s the way we grow from them that matters most. This, my friends, is where I truly began to grow! So we’re at the first quote … and the second... and the third; the failure that was my rejection pushed me to toil throughout the night (in my case early mornings), continuously reminding myself that In Christ I am capable of all things. I left N1 with four A’s, two A+’s, and Acceptance to read for my Bachelor’s of Medicine and Bachelor’s of Surgery the following year. I am currently in the third year of this degree.
My life included many other failures and successes but these were the highest and the lowest of my experiences academically, non-inclusive of the personal challenges, like my mom’s retrenchment and my grandparents' illness that arose along the journey. The credit union has provided internships, temporary jobs, and many other opportunities for me to grow along the way and you are all privy to these opportunities. I’m normal, like you, with no superhuman genius, or links and connections. I have drive and ambition, family support, an innate need to succeed, and you have it too! So I challenge you to fail, for it is in the lessons we learn from our most miserable failures that we experience our greatest success.