Why is Danielle an inspirational woman?

At medical school, I was surrounded by “high achievers”  but what is most impressive to me, are the people who are brilliant and humble. My friend Danielle is one of them. At the end of 4th year, she was the top ranking student in the whole Medical School. And she didn’t tell a soul. I lived with her for 5 years and she never boasted about how great she was. I once asked her why and she said “I don’t share too much, unless it brings praise to Jesus”. I rest my case. We could all (including me) learn to be more like that!

I asked Danielle a few questions, have a read below!

Tell us a bit about yourself

Danielle: I have just qualified as a junior doctor…which has been my lifelong dream, so I’m really excited about that! But more importantly, I am a proud mum of a beautiful boy and I am a strong Christian.

You are one of the most driven people I know. Where does that come from?

Danielle: Throughout my life, focus and determination has been my hallmark. But it’s interesting because I wouldn’t describe myself as being overly competitive. I mainly compete against myself! I always strive to better myself and disappointment for me is when I fall short of what I know I can achieve. I am never satisfied with stagnancy; but rather work to make sure I am moving forward in one way or another. For example, I took 2 years out of studying when I was pregnant and when my son was a baby; but in that time I passed my driving test, I achieved my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award and I completed the British Sign Language Level 1 course. We all have 24 hours each day,the difference between success and failure is how you use that time. I always plan how I will use my time, and that leads to productivity; rather than watching the hours pass by being wasted.

For people with children who also want to study, what tips can you give them?

Danielle: As you can imagine, it’s not easy at all! My advice would be to look ahead, because at the time all you want to do is be there for your child and you would happily sacrifice your desire to study. It’s true that there is nothing more rewarding than staying home and spending every minute with your child. But you also have to think about the long-term. I knew that I would be able to provide a better life for my son if I got a medical degree. At the time you feel like such a bad parent and that your child hates you, but you have to fight those feelings and hold on to the reason why you are doing it. For 6 years, I travelled back to London from Bristol every other weekend to spend time with my son. Every Sunday when I would leave to go back to Bristol, I would feel so down and dejected. So many times I would be sitting on the train fighting back the tears. That’s when I would pray for God’s strength to carry on. At the end of the day your children will be so proud of what you have achieved, and those short years of struggle will be long forgotten.

What kept you motivated at medical school when you had a child too?

Danielle: My passion and motivation stems from my childhood dream to become a doctor. If you have a dream and you are serious about it, then the desire to achieve it will drive you to do whatever it takes. Similarly, if you don’t have a dream then there is nothing to strive for. Also, children can be a massive motivator. I was always determined to complete medical school; but the added pressure of having to achieve in order to be able to finish studying quickly and get back home to my son, just pushed my drive up several more notches! I wouldn’t allow myself to fail because I owed it to my son not to. Everyone thought I just wanted to be the best, that I was chasing that number 1 ranking, but actually I just wanted to not fail! With each exam, my thinking was “the closer I get to 100%, the less likely I am to fail”! I just wanted to give myself as big a cushion as possible because I wasn’t going through all this emotional pain and struggle, and putting my son through it too for nothing!

Do you have any tips for work experience for medicine for those with no medical contacts?

Danielle: The road is harder if you don’t come from a medical family. Opportunities won’t be handed to you on a silver platter, so you have to seek them out yourself. That means making lots of phone calls and writing lots of emails. But if you show passion, people will happily help. Have an open mind about work experience. You should try to get a placement in a hospital, but also think outside the box and cast your net wider. Elderly care homes, orphanages, homeless shelters etc. The key is how you reflect on your experiences and what you learn from them. Any experience of working with and caring for people can be related to medicine, and as long as you can make the link then you can successfully talk about it in your personal statement and interviews.

When you achieve so much, how do you stay grateful and humble?

Danielle: By remembering it’s not because of how great I am, but because of how great He is! I’m talking about God. My faith in Jesus is my rock and it keeps me grounded. With each test and struggle I pray for God’s help and He has brought me through every time. My gifts and abilities come from God and so I boast only in Jesus…. not in my own strength.

Since I last shared this blog post, my dear friend Danielle has completed an academic foundation job in London and has begun a masters programme. She has also just got married.

I hope her story helps to inspire you too!

Until the next post!

Salma xx

In your 20’s, at uni, you are surrounded by friends. There is always someone to go shopping with or to that exhibition. But at some point you realise that you have accumulated people in your life who don’t add anything. If you think of life as a river and your life as the boat, without realising it, people hop onto your boat. People who aren’t going to help you paddle when things get tough. When you have to deal with not getting that promotion you worked really hard for or the illness of a family member, whatever. If they aren’t helping, you don’t need that in your life. Hear me when I tell you these people need to go. You do not need dead weight.

You might not be able to identify these people straight away, but a crisis is usually the way I get that clarity in my life. Who is there for you when things go wrong? It may be surprising, but I’d rather find out now than later.

Those people to have fun with are something else. They are people to have fun with. And we all need those. But this isn’t an investment. These people won’t show up for you when things go wrong and to think otherwise is foolish in my opinion. But those friends who do show up for you are diamonds, and should be treated as such. Some of my friends I have known since I was 4 years old (hi Kourtni). Those friends who would hop on a bus to see your Mum in hospital are the ones who will paddle with you. Wouldn’t you rather spend more time with them than waste time running time for people who will never show up for you like that.

Time is a gift and you can choose to invest it in those friends, or run after people who will never paddle for you.

Just a thought.

Until the next post! xx

No matter what is going on in my life. Exam season or no exam season. A busy day or a lazy day, the underlying mission of my day is always “how can I be better”.

I extend this to every aspect of my life and this mission to be better could range from learning a better way to look after my skin to a better technique to perform a clinical procedure. Whatever.

If I see someone doing something well I always think, how can I do that? How can I better myself? It’s not a competitive thing with that person, it’s purely me wanted to improve myself.

My friend once commented that it must be quite tiring being me, and I do understand her point, because always  trying to be the best in every aspect could be tiring. But it’s only tiring if you don’t accept that you will fail. Because no one is perfect.

I fail to be the best me all the time. If you have seen me around exam season you can vouch for the less than best Salma coming out. Less Carrie Bradshaw and more Coco, the homeless sister they never let on screen. But even getting half way there, ok, a quarter of the way, is better than where I started off. Which suits me just fine. And I’m not afraid to fail.

Obviously my motivation fluctuates. And on those days that I feel like I need an extra boost I will actively work on re-focusing on what is important to me and getting my life together or “fixing-up” as I call it.

I thought I would share what I do help keep myself focused as it might help on of you. I would love to hear what you do.

1- Look at “Project 2015”.

At the start of this year I sat down with a folder, some A4 dividers, A4 lined paper and a pen and tried to divide up every aspect of my life.

My first page instead of “resolutions” has “Main aims” that I want achieve by the end of the year. Some are very specific and some of more general. I would love to share them but I think I already share a lot of myself on this blog and would prefer to keep this to myself.

An example could be:

Buy a car

Run a 10 K

Since this is on my first page, I see it every time I look at my folder and it’s a good little push to fix up if I’m way of target! Things might change and that’s fine, but it’s always good to re-evaluate.

Next I divided every section of my life up. I have a section for everything that is important for me. Over 20 dividers…what can I say, I care about a lot!

An example of sections I have are:

Finances

Relationships- to make sure that I give my friends and family enough time. I made a list of all the people I want to spend time with to make sure that it is never too long before I see someone. I am generally quite good at keeping in contact but it is useful to have a list.

Religion- things I want to do more often, or learn about

CAPS – a logbook we had to fill out at Med School…

Usually looking at this folder is enough to help me get back on track. It helps that I have already spent the time dividing up my life (or trying to).

Obviously, these dividers don’t solve all of life’s problems but it helps having them in small chunks!

This is the first year that I have ever done this but it has really helped so far. I use to envy super organised people and it has been a real effort for me to try and be more organised but it is worth the effort.

2- If I’m really stuck I will listen to a great TED talk.

I tend to listen to the same talks again because there is a message that I feel I need to get.

One of the best TED talks I have ever watched is “Why 30 is not the new 20” by the brilliant Meg Jay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhhgI4tSMwc

It is terrifying and but also very motivating for me. Guaranteed that at the end of the talk I will want to go for a run or eat some goji berries and do some yoga. Ok I exaggerated, but you know what I mean. It gives me a clarity of thought that can get lost in the general noise of life.

If that hasn’t helped (and that would be very unusual for me) I will watch some Oprah Super Soul Sunday.

Just as a little disclaimer, this might sound like a lot of organisation but my life isn’t a cardboard cut out of perfection! It is messy just like everyone else’s, but I just wanted to highlight some of the useful things that I do in my life that help me out. I think if you have something to work towards, it makes getting what you want a lot easier.

Until the next post!

Salma xx

Today’s blog post has a slightly different feel to it.

There are a lot of things about being a Medical Student that aren’t talked about and repeating a year at Medical School is one of them. For every “passed my exams” Facebook status, every year there are a people who have to deal with having to re-take the year. For whatever reason.

This post below was written by someone I know who has been there and come out the other end. I hope it can help someone.

I have put in the inspiration people section because seeing someone deal with something like this and come out of it the other end is inspirational to me.

Have I seen you before?

Repeating a year can be frightening, embarrassing and frustrating or it can give you a second chance – a chance to take things slowly and start again. Press the refresh button and rewind. When you enter E29 or Lecture theatre 1.4, half the year have no idea of your back story and the other half may have vague recollections of you from their original year. Both sets of groups will be making assumptions about you and questions will arise, but remember it is not their information. It is yours.

You can go through the year in two ways: 1) Tell people you are repeating if they ask or 2) Don’t tell them anything.

Accepting that I had to repeat the year was most helpful in tackling the way I would handle the year again. Having the perspective of what the year entails and the knowing the terror of exams was key in forming a timeline in my head. Use this to your advantage to keep on top.

Another important thing to remember is that you are not alone. There will be other people in your shoes. Support one another.

I went through 4.5 (second 4^th year) telling people I was repeating as I had met somebody who had done the same in my first fourth year. I thought that showed a lot of courage and honesty and I respected the way they handled it. However the first person on my placement that I told would never let this fact go. They took it upon themselves to inform the rest of the group or act as a constant reminder at any chance they got.

Keep in touch with your friends from whatever year. They are sanity. Don’t cut yourself off no matter how embarrassed or disheartened you may feel. Make new friends as well. When your old friends are gone after their graduation, knowing you still have people around for your final year will be a comfort.

Turn to things which de-stress you. Whether this is friends, family, books, music or religion. You will need something to take your head off of medicine. Don’t assume that you need to be studying 24-7 to pass after failing. You just need to find a balance.

Having your notes from the previous year is helpful, but don’t rely on them alone. Make new notes or add to your existing ones. Go to the lectures you feel are appropriate, especially ones that you knew made no sense the first time around. Have a timetable or plan from day 1. Stick to it as much as you can but remember to relax as well. You don’t want to burn out.

When revising try and understand things rather than memorise. Having revised them the year before, the topics will make more sense and may take less time to get through them. Keep revising until you are satisfied and start early. Do everything before you did the year before.

At the end of the day, believe in yourself. Ignore what others may assume or even say. You may have failed once, but looking at what you failed and why will be more productive then blaming the system. Learn from the previous year and make changes.

The mantra that worked for me was written on a post-it note by one of my friends:

Step 1: Accept

Step 2: Challenge

Step 3: Persevere

Step 4: Be unafraid

You will get through.

Aawaz would like to thank the writer of this post for such honest and helpful insights.