Side Hustles In Medical School
What Dr. Akinbile does not seem to have realized is that my colleague is not living in the glorious '70s of affordable, even free education. That every minute my colleague spends justifying his absence from that Friday clinic is another few minutes explaining to his clients that he will still make it in time to take the convocation pictures and videos. They will consider him. After all, they all shared the CBN lecture theatre and Zoology laboratories in the frenzied first weeks of freshman year. Now, they've graduated and will join the workforce with the degrees they've duly earned while he chases the title of Doctor.
As a medical student, my colleague does not have the privilege of early induction into the workforce. This means the bulk of his youth will be spent studying the art of medicine. Hence, his becoming an adult, assuming he was a young child at entry, will happen in the bleak spaciousness of the hospital wards. Assuming he was a young child who did not realize early that survival, even thriving in medical school, requires funds that did not come for him in the form of parental trust funds, scholarships, or loans.
What makes medical school harder for my colleague is the simple fact that he has to juggle life and hustling with the expectations of medical school. To survive. To attempt to excel. My colleague is only a member of the influential and very populous group, Medical Hustlers.
The Made
Within the encompassing sphere of Medical Hustlers is the dot of an exclusive group, The Made. These are the hustlers who are not novelly hustling. They are the classmates who fund the class hangouts, who pick classmates up on the way to lecture rooms in their air-conditioned cars. The "Money-Bags".
They are the most aware and affected by Dollar inflation. They don't engage in class banter. The few times you see them message on the group, they're sending receipts for a class giveaway.
They don't miss the important class sessions. They're cool with everyone in class. But after the closing bell rings, they're off the school grid.
In every class, The Made are not more than three to five. They are the Tech bros, the Affiliate Marketers, the actual Entrepreneurs. They are the unexplainably rich guys with unexplainable sources. Still, they're rich and don't flaunt Daddy's money, so, they're The Made Hustlers.
The Unmade
Old takers. The three-quarter broken branches. All those hustles you're thinking of starting? They've been there. They've done it. And they're back with the truth. The gospel of the irreconcilability of school rigour and vigorous hustle. They are those students who are really into full-time studentship, very knowledgeable about the hustles, but they always have free time on their hands. They cook the explanations about the sources of the unexplainable wealth of the unexplainable hustlers. And they don't give positive verdicts. The Unmade do not believe in the future keyness of education but they, sacrifice everything to get it. They are the enigma, in the sense of deciding the way forward and whatnot.
The Upcomer
These ones find medical school truly difficult. They juggle the hustles and classes. They make excuses to consultants about why they missed yet another ward round. They must befriend their group reps because they simply cannot make 75% attendance in every posting. They are the true hustlers.
They are that model that sends Instagram posts to the class group twice a week for likes and comments, the photographer that always chats with the Faculty President and Hall Social Director. They are the barbers, the makeup artists, the graphic designers. Many juggle more than 3 hustles to make a stable one. They are the crash readers. You find them most active on group chats 3 days to EOPT(End-of-Posting-Test) asking for Pqs.
They are so easily victims of ruthless percussions by the doctors. They believe in the future keyness of education but they must survive to get to the door in the first place.
Some are on academic scholarships. Some have uncles that send some funds once in 4 months. They combine all these fractions to make a whole existence that affords them feeding and passing tests.
When you are told sincerely and passionately that medical school is the most difficult place on earth, chances are high that the teller is an Upcomer.
The Nepos
Outside of these 3 groups are the ideal medical students. The triangular students. Hostel room-Class-Library. They are the ‘nepo babies’. They do not know what is so hard about getting 80 in a test. “Just attend classes, read textbooks, watch videos and solve PQs”, they say. They’ve never had to worry about what to eat, so school is purely an academic space for them. When you find someone arguing that “Medical School is not that hard, you only have to focus”, that person is most likely a ‘Nepo baby’. They are the students with 100% attendance record. The consultants know them on a first-name basis. They never live in fear of failing tests. They have all the materials from the first day of the posting. They are the non-Hustlers.
The Made, The Unmade and The Upcomer make up the Medical Hustlers. They sideline, deservedly, the Nepo babies who have never been exposed to the harshness of the world outside the wards and seminar rooms. They are the students that have lost the initial excitement of Doctorship that they had on their White Coat Ceremony. They simply can’t wait to inducted and get to the next big step. Medical students appear undaunted and focused to the outsider who does not share the anxiety of these students, spent and tired from confusing experiences. Medical students are the main characters in the lore of students that spend entire days buried in books. Medical students show up despite the situation because that is the spirit of the overcomer. For, to be an overcomer is to hustle to get over the barriers of academic and economic necessities. And to be that overcomer, the medical student has to be a hustler.
Quareeb Abdulrahmon
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