Hello McMaster! My name is Talal Siddiqui, and I am currently in my fourth year of the
Honours Life Sciences program, and I anticipate pursuing a career in medicine. I believe any
career pathway takes intense dedication and commitment to fully reach one’s potential and
attain the most from a competitive society. However, the reality is that difficulties and challenges
are inevitable and have the power to certainly hold someone back from their dreams. I believe
that these obstacles in life define a person’s mindset to cleverly work past their hardships while
having patience for success.
In the long and committed medical degree journey, students are bombarded with dozens of
assignments and exams every other week. These are also followed by extracurricular activities
such as research volunteering or shadowing health physicians. You will always find students
complaining about stress throughout the semester when they desperately need to get those A+s
to present a competitive medical school application. However, I believe that the most stress
comes from overthinking and pondering so much over a single “bad” grade. The worst that
could happen is a rejection from your top med school, but does that mean you lose all hopes of
becoming a health physician and hold yourself accountable as a failure? Of course not, the
absolute worst has yet to even happen! That is why I believe everything, especially the
challenges, should be appreciated as it shows you the world’s reality and prepares you for the
absolute worst.
Patience is a key element. If you can genuinely understand its significance, you are in line to
meet the ease and rewards that come through periods of hardship. For instance, I had that one
super-talented and intelligent friend who graduated with a 4.0 GPA and a competitive MCAT
score. Unfortunately, his application was declined. As said, he took that additional “gap” year to
work on his extracurriculars, such as research work at the Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. This
allowed him to network with health professionals through which he gained references for his
med school application. His patience and belief in himself to make a comeback helped to get
admission to one of the finest med schools in the US.
In conclusion, having patience helps through difficulties in life.
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