On Intelligence and Motivation
Dear Self,
Yesterday, a friend told me that one of our former colleagues doesn't believe that I'm as smart as people think or say I am. He, somehow, dug up my medical school history and figured that out - freaky, if you ask me, but it's a good point of reflection for today, nonetheless.
Throughout my academic career, I had always been among the top students - elementary, high school, and college... until medical school came about. My decline from the top actually started way earlier - I felt the burn out since the latter part of high school. During my last two years in high school, I started paying more attention to volleyball (of which I was a varsity player), but still managed to make it in the honor roll even though I wasn't as high up in the ranking as I used to be in my first two years there. Then, in college, while I started out great during the first few semesters, I began to lose interest again near the end but still managed to stay in the Dean's list. Medical school.. that was a different (and hilarious) story.
After the adjustment period in the beginning of medical school, I actually started getting really good grades. In fact, I was starting to beat the top students in our class. Then, there were these two subjects where my stupidity got the best of me. The first was in our General Medicine class - the professor was dictating the questions, which we were supposed to answer on a piece of yellow paper. For some unknown reason, my frontal cortex did not register the instructions - I wrote down the questions and thought we were going to be given time to answer them afterwards. You can imagine my surprise (and panic) when the professor finally said to pass our papers! Hahaha! Expectedly, I got a zero for that quiz - my first ever in my academic life. However, this forced me to study extremely well for the succeeding quizzes, and I got near perfect scores for every single one of them. In the end, I still passed that subject with a score that was only a couple of points above average.
The second incident happened in that same year. I don't know why I lost all common sense during that period of my life in medical school, haha. Anyway, ironically, it was in Pathology - which happens to be my specialty now. I overslept and missed a major exam! I remember waking up, my heart was pounding in my ear, and I literally squealed as they do in the movies. It was an uphill climb from then on - I knew I needed marvelous grades in the succeeding semesters just to pass. Which, of course, I was able to do, but it turned out to be my lowest final grade ever in my life. I realized then that scores on a report card (or transcript) do not reflect an entire story - while a person may superficially see that as a low grade and dismiss me as another "just passing" mediocre student, they weren't able to see all the top scores I had to pull off just to meet that final grade after missing a major exam.
Anyway, with all of these experiences in tow, I started losing interest again. I figured, no matter what I do or how much I study, I will never average out a high GPA (grade point average) because of these two unfortunate events. I figured, why exert any effort now when there's no more hope for me to be on top. And so, I decided to explore my other interests apart from academics - video games, sports, music. Balancing my studies and my hobbies came easy to me - I still got pretty good grades without exerting too much effort. On top of that, I enjoyed LIFE.
It was at this point, perhaps, that I started taking things for granted. I believed in my own intelligence, in my mental capacity to pass my subjects without actually focusing on my studies too much. And, as such, I became just another mediocre student. I was content with where I was, but I knew I wasn't tapping my full potential.
And then it came time to choose a specialty. There was another unfortunate event here that occurred, which I would probably relay to you some other time. But the gist of it is that I didn't get accepted into a specialty training program because of some irresponsible online post I wrote on social media. That was my humble pie.
I took a year off after that experience. And, during that time of reprieve, I was able to find my motivation again. My drive. It was then that I decided never to take things for granted ever again, to give my maximum effort in everything I do. Blessings won't be handed down to me on a silver platter. I had to turn my life around. It was a point of maturity. The following year, when I got into a training program, I gave it a 110%. And this translated very well in my grades - I was on top of nationwide assessment exams and remained there for the next four years of my specialty training. I was beating cum laudes, suma cum laudes, and magna cum laudes. My exceptional grades were opening up so many opportunities. It was a great feeling, to find my drive again. And, to this day, I have never looked back - still driven, still achieving, still at the top of my field in my country.
Intelligence is a difficult concept to measure. It is fluid, it changes. It is influenced by experiences. It is affected by circumstances. What is more important is to find your MOTIVATION. The DRIVE to achieve is a stronger force than natural smarts. Keep that in mind, dear self, and you will continue doing great things.
Sincerely.
Lagundi
Photo credits : https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/human-body-brain-520111273
Yesterday, a friend told me that one of our former colleagues doesn't believe that I'm as smart as people think or say I am. He, somehow, dug up my medical school history and figured that out - freaky, if you ask me, but it's a good point of reflection for today, nonetheless.
Throughout my academic career, I had always been among the top students - elementary, high school, and college... until medical school came about. My decline from the top actually started way earlier - I felt the burn out since the latter part of high school. During my last two years in high school, I started paying more attention to volleyball (of which I was a varsity player), but still managed to make it in the honor roll even though I wasn't as high up in the ranking as I used to be in my first two years there. Then, in college, while I started out great during the first few semesters, I began to lose interest again near the end but still managed to stay in the Dean's list. Medical school.. that was a different (and hilarious) story.
After the adjustment period in the beginning of medical school, I actually started getting really good grades. In fact, I was starting to beat the top students in our class. Then, there were these two subjects where my stupidity got the best of me. The first was in our General Medicine class - the professor was dictating the questions, which we were supposed to answer on a piece of yellow paper. For some unknown reason, my frontal cortex did not register the instructions - I wrote down the questions and thought we were going to be given time to answer them afterwards. You can imagine my surprise (and panic) when the professor finally said to pass our papers! Hahaha! Expectedly, I got a zero for that quiz - my first ever in my academic life. However, this forced me to study extremely well for the succeeding quizzes, and I got near perfect scores for every single one of them. In the end, I still passed that subject with a score that was only a couple of points above average.
The second incident happened in that same year. I don't know why I lost all common sense during that period of my life in medical school, haha. Anyway, ironically, it was in Pathology - which happens to be my specialty now. I overslept and missed a major exam! I remember waking up, my heart was pounding in my ear, and I literally squealed as they do in the movies. It was an uphill climb from then on - I knew I needed marvelous grades in the succeeding semesters just to pass. Which, of course, I was able to do, but it turned out to be my lowest final grade ever in my life. I realized then that scores on a report card (or transcript) do not reflect an entire story - while a person may superficially see that as a low grade and dismiss me as another "just passing" mediocre student, they weren't able to see all the top scores I had to pull off just to meet that final grade after missing a major exam.
Anyway, with all of these experiences in tow, I started losing interest again. I figured, no matter what I do or how much I study, I will never average out a high GPA (grade point average) because of these two unfortunate events. I figured, why exert any effort now when there's no more hope for me to be on top. And so, I decided to explore my other interests apart from academics - video games, sports, music. Balancing my studies and my hobbies came easy to me - I still got pretty good grades without exerting too much effort. On top of that, I enjoyed LIFE.
It was at this point, perhaps, that I started taking things for granted. I believed in my own intelligence, in my mental capacity to pass my subjects without actually focusing on my studies too much. And, as such, I became just another mediocre student. I was content with where I was, but I knew I wasn't tapping my full potential.
And then it came time to choose a specialty. There was another unfortunate event here that occurred, which I would probably relay to you some other time. But the gist of it is that I didn't get accepted into a specialty training program because of some irresponsible online post I wrote on social media. That was my humble pie.
I took a year off after that experience. And, during that time of reprieve, I was able to find my motivation again. My drive. It was then that I decided never to take things for granted ever again, to give my maximum effort in everything I do. Blessings won't be handed down to me on a silver platter. I had to turn my life around. It was a point of maturity. The following year, when I got into a training program, I gave it a 110%. And this translated very well in my grades - I was on top of nationwide assessment exams and remained there for the next four years of my specialty training. I was beating cum laudes, suma cum laudes, and magna cum laudes. My exceptional grades were opening up so many opportunities. It was a great feeling, to find my drive again. And, to this day, I have never looked back - still driven, still achieving, still at the top of my field in my country.
Intelligence is a difficult concept to measure. It is fluid, it changes. It is influenced by experiences. It is affected by circumstances. What is more important is to find your MOTIVATION. The DRIVE to achieve is a stronger force than natural smarts. Keep that in mind, dear self, and you will continue doing great things.
Sincerely.
Lagundi
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