Falling for Medicine

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Greetings everyone.

please join me in this journey of writing this book, I'm just trying to de-clutter my head, it doesn't start up so well forgive me I'm new to this but I hope you will enjoy it anyways.

give us a chance- its something different I can promise you that.

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nginithanda nonke - I love you all.

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My name is Amanda Nkosi, I'm 26 years old, I'm very short with wide hips and caramel skin, I have black curly hair that is sometimes impossible to manage. For the past seven years I have had my nose stuck inside a book completing my medical degree, something my father was very proud off. I secretly think that he had actually wanted to be a doctor himself but because he couldn't he pushed me to follow his dreams instead. please don't misunderstand me I love medicine I love figuring out puzzles and to me there's no greater puzzle than the human body.

On my last week here Dr. van Wyk had called me into the office and told me that I had been granted a position in a surgical residency program in Seattle, he had begrudgingly congratulated me, even I could see that he wasn't happy for me but guess what I was too happy to care, that program was the best in the world and being ran by award winning specialist. I couldn't have been happier.

My father had been looking forward to me finally completing school and coming back home, where he was ready to help me open up a small town practice and be back living under his nose, that idea sat about as comfortable to me as me spending the rest of my life being a general practitioner. No my interest with the human anatomy was figuring out how it worked and whats the best way to do that then to learn to take it apart piece by piece, convincing my father though was a different story. I had been very nervous about telling him that I'm not planning on coming back home that instead I'm going to be starting a new five year training program across the world. Geography was his biggest problem but other than that I had never seen my father so proud of me, his pupils had dilated like he was on drugs or something.

My father gathered the rest of the family and all our friends and threw me the biggest graduation party, he had been going around telling everyone that would listen to him of his daughters achievements. I love my father but I know he can sometimes take things too far. he had done it again that morning by asking my older sister what she was doing with her life, see my older was the rebel in our family always blaming my dad for her short comings. She failed her senior year and said it was because dad wasn't paying attention to her. When he moved her in with us he was suffocating her and when she eventually fell pregnant and ran away to live with relatives it was because my father was too strict, it was always something with her. So yeah my dad being my best friend kind of alienated me from her and well the rest of the family.

I had always found it unfair how my sister and cousins treated me, and called me spoiled just because I preferred being at home, curled up in front of the TV or with a good book, being the introvert generally meant that I was the good child the one that was never caught sneaking out or having boy scandals or flunking a test. I had more than enough time to study so when they all did something wrong the famous line that had been repeatedly told to them by all the grown ups was "why cant you be more like Amanda!".

You can just imagine how famous that made me with them note the sarcasm. but I loved them fiercely none the less. They all came down for my party and were very happy to see me again.  being in school and training meant that I had skipped a lot of family events and gatherings now moving to another continent to be a surgical resident they knew for sure they would only see me once a year if they were lucky. My younger sister had been against it, she was fighting for me to start living my life or so she would always say (eye roll). She couldn't understand how after seven years of school I could go back for another five years instead of just calling it quits here, she was the one responsible for my social life - not that i had one. but my sister( God bless her soul) never gave up on making me more out going, she would make the trip to where I stayed every month to make sure that she drags me out of my room away from the books into the life of a young person.

I had tons of fun on all those fierce party weekends, if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have discovered that i don't like beer, ciders  whisky or wine my trusted alcoholic beverage was vodka. She on the other hand has this love for red wine that I just will never understand, believe me shes tried explaining it even dragged me to quiet a number of wine tasting parties all with the hope that I will find that perfect Merlot that will light up my insides, me I thought that was just too much pressure on a bottle of wine. 

Sabie Nkosi is my best friend, my worrier, my champion my biggest fan and my younger sister. If I had any problems or good news she was always my first call. Sometimes I felt and still feel like she is the older one when in reality she is a couple of years younger than me. She is my fathers baby, though she and him both treat me like I am the baby in the family . Shes an outgoing person who is humble and very patient. Shes loud and outgoing and is in love with life, shes a public relations officer for a property company but her true love lies in marketing. We cried when I told her then she had laughed and told me she knew I wouldn't be moving back home, she was expecting me to specialize she had just known it just like that.  As sad as she was about not being able to see me every month for our party weekend she was very excited for the opportunity that awaited me in America. She couldn't wait to come see me that side so we could have our weekend party scene at an international scale - her words not mine.

Which brings me back here to this flamboyant party that my father was throwing me on the eve of my departure. at some point in the evening after all my dads friends had congratulated me with an envelope full of cash my sister grabbed a bottle of sky, my cousins and we went to party according to her definition. We didn't get home until 5 the next morning to find my dad waiting up for us, maybe he got up early I don't know either way he was there and he wouldn't let us go pass out like my body was dying too. No instead we prepared breakfast, packed my bags and generally had a wonderful morning together before he and Sabie drove me to the airport.

Here I am yet again leaving home some how this time it felt different. I was older than the last time I left for school so I  was more nervous, I feared the unknown but most of all I feared failure more than anything. Plus I had to come to the terms with the fact that my dad wouldn't drive all night to cheer me up after a crappy exam or Sabie wouldn't just show up on a Saturday morning to drag me out of my world and into hers for two days. I cried so much at the terminal that my father considered me staying, he was also nervous for me, I hadn't been on my own actually. I was 26 years old with a medical degree under my belt but felt like an eighteen year old leaving home for the very first time.