The 'about me' part of the blog is rather... Shall we say, Pre-emptive. I don't live in the Mother City (Cape Town) just yet... I currently reside in sunny, friendly, happy Durban. And have since birth...
However I've always wanted to go to Cape Town. Or rather to UCT specifically since I was confident enough to dare to dream (yes. I do in fact see the cheesyness.). From grade 9 my best friend (at the time), we'll call her "Christmas" and I were planning to go. I wanted to be a high flying lawyer. Tight skirt suits, shiny high patent leather pumps, pulled back ballet bun, briefcase (lined with pink satin). It was the dream. Back when I was naïve enough to believe in the nobility of the legal profession... And watched law and order every night. She was going to be a charted accountant, and we were gonna prove everyone who said we couldn't do it, wrong. But... 3 years, a change of high school (for me) and a lost mxit pin (also, for me) later and I'm going alone.
Though Christmas is still doing Charted accountancy, but at the University here in KZN... And I have forsaken my dreams of ballet buns and satin lined briefcases in favour of scalpels and scrubs. My choice bewilders my father, as it would 9th grade, 14 year old me. It kind of still surprises me too...
If I hadn't chosen medicine I would be going into book publishing... My kindle is my best friend. Even more than my Crackberry. Though I'll admit, nothing is quite like the feel of paper as you turn the page and go farther and farther into a whole new world. But that choice... Would be selfish. I'd be happy. No doubt. I'd be touching the lives of many with the written word and have madcap adventures (a la Ryan Reynolds in the proposal. Minus the whole falling in love with Sandra Bullock thing). However... I was an avid watcher of beauty pageants in my formative years and I too want to walk on a stage in a swim suit, smiling till my cheeks hurt and make a difference in the world. Well... At least the last one... And medicine... Its fulfilling. And the rush of excitement I get when a friend declares they suffer from an illness of sorts is like nothing else... The morbid curiosity I feel when someone with questioning eyes shows me their oozing wound and the echo of my heart breaking when I see someone suffering from an affliction they could be delivered from with adequate healthcare... That convinced me to become Dr. Girl in the Purple Trench Coat... That and Greys Anatomy. And House.
Its my dream. And its coming true. And I want to scream. And take back my letter to Santa (I mean my mom). "Santa (mommy). I don't want a puppy anymore! He poops on the carpet! Take Rufus back to the North Pole!!". So too do I want to say to God "I know I prayed for this. But I hadn't realized my dream coming true and my new life would mean leaving my old one behind... Can I retract that prayer and pray for a time machine instead?? And go back to grade 1?? Finger painting... "Let's be friends"... "Come on kids! Storytime"... I want that now please". But I can't have that now can I?
*warning, pithy, hackneyed idioms coming your way
Like a caterpillar goes through his metamorphosis to become a butterfly. Like the flower petals have to die before the fruit grows. And like Joan of Arc had to die to become canonized. I too have to suck it up and become who I've always wanted to be. Who I'd never forgive myself for not becoming.
I'm leaving on a jet plane. I know when I'll be back again "57 days".
The countdown begins
