REFLECTIONS ON JOINING PHYSIOTHERAPY

THINK PAD

Life is like a journey. Many uncertainties come with it. It may be accompanied by some failures. Successful is the one who gets along with all these difficulties and moves on instead of looking back and regretting the past. We only discover life once we travel in our life’s journey.

Getting admission in a public medical college is a dream of many students of intermediate (pre-medical group). Due to this ambition, many students repeat their intermediate exams and entry tests to improve their marks. Some are successful in securing their place in a public medical institute and many are not. Unsuccessful ones go to private medical colleges, go abroad for doing MBBS, or they opt for other fields.

I also didn’t get enough marks to study medicine, but I wasn’t obsessed with MBBS or BDS. I had thought that if I didn’t get the scores for MBBS/BDS, I wouldn’t repeat the exams and would rather go for other fields. So, I went into environmental science. It was a very wide field and I liked it. But it wasn’t close to medical science; it was much broader. I kept trying to find admission in fields closer to medicine.

Then, Alhamdulilah, I got admission in DPT (Doctor of Physiotherapy). I felt like my dream had come true. It is almost like MBBS. Many subjects and books are the same. The hard work is the same. What else could I desire!

However, when I see students saying that we came here only because we didn’t get admission in MBBS, it seems a bit strange to me. It gives the impression they aren’t happy with what they have. Our pursuits shouldn’t become our obsessions. We should take a step back and look at others who are studying in fields entirely different from medicine.

Don’t develop tunnel vision. Don’t be impatient. Do hard work and submit yourself to the timing of Allah. Allah has a plan for you which is better than yours. Try to find good things in your field. My interest in physiotherapy has increased by going on ward visits in my third year, because I’ve seen patients coming for physiotherapy and I’ve come across situations where I can help. We’re all very hasty and become depressed very easily. Allah says in the Holy Quran: “Man was created of haste” (21:37).

Nevertheless, it does feel bad when someone says that this field has limited scope in Pakistan. We should know that the doors of other fields are still open even after getting into a specific field. Take the example of the Indian-born Nobel laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan. First he did bachelors and PhD in physics. During his studies he found himself interested in scientific articles of biology. It appeared to him that major developments were taking place in life sciences but physics wasn’t making any real breakthrough. So he switched to biology, took classes as a graduate student, and went on to become a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, along with two other scientists, for his research into the atomic structure and function of ribosomes.

In the end, nobody knows the future. Only Allah knows when and what would happen and what is best for us. Instead of hovering here and there, we should look at the blessings we have now, concentrate on our studies, and ask Allah for help.