It was not just a typical Friday, it was Friday, the 20th of March, My birthday! I was in my final year of medical school at the time. I had just concluded my surgery rotation and that very day was end of posting examinations, I wrote the examination, it went well. I was joyous because I was going to celebrate my birthday, a happy man. I was also going to enjoy the weekend before resuming my last medical school rotation on Monday, little did I know that things weren’t going to play out how I wanted.
After the exams, I was preparing to go out with my friends to turn up 😁😁.
Of course, we were already hearing news of how there was a suspected Covid case in Nigeria, but we felt that it was going to be controlled and it wasn’t going to affect our training as we had just one rotation left for us to graduate anyways. I and my friends were on our way out when a memo came from the school authorities. It was like a shocker
What happened???
The memo said ALL students were to pack their belongings and go home, that it was just for ‘a month’. It was shocking because I had just one rotation left to finally leave medical school after almost 7 years. What was this ?
Reality set in when we actually started going to our various houses, it was unbelievable. I got home, I was happy to see my family after a while of course, they were also happy to see me. I thought I was just going to stay home a while and go back to continue my training. Markets began shutting down, there was interstate ban, then eventually, a total lockdown.
A month went by and we were still at home, with no word from the school. It was about 6 weeks later they send messages to us to keep calm and wait, that there were measures put in place for our resumption. We started online classes but of course, online classes for medical school doesn’t just cut it because we needed clinical skills. I started learning how to edit pictures better, I took some online courses, but all these things weren’t enough, I felt like a prisoner. it was depressing.
[image by me]
2 months went by, then 3, then 4, then 5, then 6. I must say that was the most frustrating period of my life. I lost my grandmum at the time as well (not due to Covid), it was really hard because that was the only grandparent I had.
I was basically just existing at a point because no matter how hard I tried different things, my mood was constantly low. I would have graduated and done my housemanship program and finished 2 months ago but this wasn’t the case, we eventually resumed the 7th month and finished our rotation, I wrote my professional exams, defended my project and eventually graduated from medical school. I am currently still running my housemanship program and hopefully I’ll be done early next year.
I’m just grateful that despite all that happened, I didn’t get Covid, neither did any of my family members, God found a way to keep providing food for us, it was a really trying period for a lot of people, so many people went hungry, many people lost their jobs, lives were lost (God rest their souls) many people were locked in with their abusers. I know that the pandemic isn’t over, but things are somewhat better.
I’ll encourage everyone to keep wearing face masks, get vaccinated and continue social distancing.
Thank you for reading🙏🏾