Finding myself

My tutor asked me as a first year medical student to write down the qualities that I aspired to emulate as I learnt to be a doctor and to carry this piece of paper wherever I went. So whenever I felt that I was losing myself, it would remind me of why I was here. The months flew by: a blur of exams, ward rounds, rotations, belittlement, deaths, and, lo and behold, my final year.

Gradually, the pressure built up, and as I was …