Leaving your comfort zone is one of the scariest things you may ever do. Problem is, it’s not just your fears that scare you. The fears of those around you, especially your loved ones, scare you even more. My situation wasn’t different when I told my mother that I was walking away from what took me almost a decade to get.
Mom sat at the foot of my bed. It comprised a thick hard mattress encased in a sturdy mahogany frame that seemed to add to the already somber mood. She had traveled a great distance to see me, out of concern for my welfare. I was perched opposite her, my back against the headboard, staring up at the ceiling. Her question still hung in the air, like thick smoke from burning hydrocarbon. I was silent, still staring up as though watching the imaginary smoke rise like incense and wishing that in like manner, it would be gradually wafted away by the wind. But it didn’t. Rather, after a brief moment of uneasy silence, she asked again.
“Uchechukwu, what exactly is the problem?”
Silence again.
It took me what looked like an eternity to reply. When it seemed I would suffocate from the heavy smoke if I didn’t say something.
“I am leaving medical practice”, I blurted out.
Silence….
Hello steemians.
I am Eleonu Uchechukwu, a young doctor trying to find his way in the vast medical universe and let me set the records straight. I’m not really leaving medical practice. I only blurted that out for want of a better way to express myself as you may come to understand shortly. However, I would like to, at this point, express my gratitude to my lovely sister @cwen for being the first to talk to me about steemit.
I’m really excited at the opportunity to be in this community but to be honest, it wasn’t so at first. My sister called me up one morning just as I was about to leave for work. She was like(sic), “Hey, I’ve recently come across this social media where you can post those your stories and be paid for it”. Then she went on to give me a brief introduction to steemit. At the end, I was like, “Ok, I’ll see about that” quite nonchalantly, I must confess.
Stepping out of my tiny apartment, with my mind on the immediate task that awaited me at work, I would forget all about steemit until the next call from my sister.
Long story short, two things made me not take my sister’s conversation seriously at first. One was the fact that I am usually very skeptical about anything that had to do with making money online probably due to some bad personal experiences and the experience of a few people I know. The second and probably more important reason was my conviction. You see, I may have doubts from time to time, concerning my writing skills but deep down inside, I really believed I was, or at least some day would be, good enough to have my works published traditionally. So, I wasn’t going to risk them not being published in hard copies by letting them out online. !
However that perception would change five months later when I would come across steemit again online. This time I took my time to really learn more about it and suddenly out of nowhere it hit me. Boom! Steemit was what I have been searching for all these years. It would give me a platform to really express myself, hone my writing skills plus I even get rewarded for it all.
Wow! So like a wound up clockwork, I started harrying my sister @cwen and my brother @gerald.knows with calls and calls and calls!!
Anyway, back to my story…
Mom let out some sort of short hysterical laughter. I just sat there saying nothing else but this time, watching her. I knew she only laughed for want of a better way to react to the news I just broke. I really wanted to tell her more. I wanted to tell her that I had always wanted more from life. I didn’t just want to be a plain old doctor. I wanted to tell her that I had a few other talents to put to use and passions to pursue. I wanted to tell her that there had always been this restlessness in me right from before my medical school days that wanted me to go out there and draw and paint my world in colors only I have dreamed about. I also wanted her to know that I wasn’t really leaving the medical practice. I just wanted to practise on my own terms. I wanted to do other things I had the passion and talent for and not just allow my life to be ruled by the whims and caprices of medical practice in Nigeria. I just needed that freedom to be what I am really meant to be.
“The greatest successes come from having the freedom to fail” – Mark Zuckerberg
I really want to bring into existence those my ideas, my dreams that would make my life more meaningful but one thing wasn’t letting me do this- medicine.
No, scratch that. It wasn’t really medical practice that was holding me back. It was the fear in the practice especially in this part of the world. You see, over here in Nigeria, most doctors don’t come from affluent families; most of us come from families struggling financially, so it’s not a surprise when the entire family begins to look up to you as their ‘get out of jail’ card from poverty. So, when you eventually become a doctor in this part of the world, two things hold true most times. You are not going to earn well but you are going to earn enough to get you three square meals a day, a roof over your head and maybe a small car to take you to work and back. Secondly, you may be the one according to our Nigerian standard, with some sort of ‘financial security’ which you cannot afford to lose for the sake of your entire family. So as a doctor in Nigeria, what do you do when you think you’ve got other things you could do and really be good at? You forget it. It’s too much risk. You dig your feet into medicine. You finish school, you get your housemanship done, you go for the national youth service compulsory one year program, and you join the residency program and finally become a grey haired consultant. Now that’s the rat race you become part of, as life passes you by. The rat race that makes you give up every other dream because you are afraid. You are afraid that you don’t have enough financial backing to try something new. You are afraid if you leave the system for a while and try something new that you might fail and if you fail, it takes you back to ground zero -that dreadful place being a doctor seemed to have brought you out from. So why risk it? Sadly, I think this is what makes most Nigerian doctors plain old boring doctors whereas ironically, they actually are an amazing group of professionals with individuals that are so gifted with diverse talents, skills and ideas that could make this world a better place. So, in the words of Passenger, a popular musician, medical practice in Nigeria, becomes one of those things that stop you dreaming.
Well a smile lights up my face now as I write because I now know that I am not going to be a victim. Why? I have met steemit. With steemit, I finally get the freedom to fail. No, scratch that. With steemit, I get the much needed freedom to create. This is the platform that houses the portal to my dreams. So come with me, hold my hands as I take you through my world of entertaining fiction, soul stirring poetry, food adventures, healthy living, passionate and innovate agricultural practices and so many more fun things.
You see, I call myself dreamcatcher because I made a vow never to settle, never to get comfortable until most or all of my dreams come true. It seemed a difficult task before but now, with steemit, I see light at the end of the tunnel, a light that would lead me to my world of colored dreams.
As a way of wrapping this up, I want to appreciate my siblings @cwen, @gerald.knows, @pepperonii and @juceleonu. They all played a role towards me joining this wonderful community. I must also thank @nairadaddy also for urging them to bring me in. Already @air-clinic is looking quite exciting.
I hope we all enjoy this journey together.
Thank you steemit.
