My life.

Hey there! Ian here, a Foundation in Science student studying in IMU. This blog post is just an avenue to share the story of how I decided that I would take a science foundation to work towards a medical degree.

As a child, I’d often read books written by author Dr.Seuss; my understanding of what a doctor was back then was slightly (very) incorrect as I had thought that doctors spent their time writing books titled ‘Green Eggs and Ham’. As I grew older, my understanding of what a doctor was progressed to the acknowledgment that doctors helped people get better and hence I remember from a very young age; the tenacity I had to want to excel in the occupation. For many years, I thought I had wanted to be a doctor; a childlike innocence and genuine generosity to the devotion of my life to helping others.

Somehow along the lines though, my heart went to other places as I’d discovered the many joys in other occupations. The thought of helping others had still remained as I reconsidered my options and decided that psychology was for me; I could help people with mental needs. The thought first came when I joined a homeschool learning centre that was adequately equipped with learning resources for children with ADHD; many of my classmates were birthed with the unwanted…”defect”. When I saw this, my heart broke for these people and all I had wanted to do from then on was to help them in the future.

Years passed and I had held on to the desire to want to do psychology; that was until my final year of high school when I realised my strengths in Physics, Mathematics and Visual Design. During this time, money had become a greater priority for my future; a secure and well paying job was the very essence of what had driven me to work hard in school. I decided then that the occupation that made the most sense for me would have been architecture; and so it was, I held on to those dreams for the year.

My final year of high school had passed and it was truly time for me to think of what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I thought long and hard about architecture; it then dawned on me that the desire to draw buildings my whole life was not truly there and it was not out of genuine passion for buildings that I wanted to be an architect, but because of the best aspects of myself; my best subjects, the job that made the most sense.

After my final year, I took a 7 month break to really think and work on myself; I worked as a freelance photographer for 7 months and found much success in the industry. I had the incredible opportunity of working for companies like The Four Seasons, Grabfood, Fish & Co, Tune Hotel Group and even politically influential people like Prime Minister, Datuk Mahatir. In this time, I realised that despite my success and the fact that I loved what I was doing, I didn’t want to do it for the rest of my life. I started to think about the subject that I loved most in school; and truth be told, it wasn’t my strongest. I knew then that my true passion was biology; it always sparked joy in me whenever I studied it.

My desire to help people had come back.

I decided that I was going to follow my child long dream of being a doctor and so with the money I had earned from working as a photographer; RM25000 for my University fees, I put aside for my education in IMU.

I believe that my decision to want to be a doctor is one that I will never regret; I now know my true life’s calling and I am so certain that I’ve made the right decision to join IMU. The prospects of my future are uncertain, but I am assured every single day that I am in great hands; I know the road ahead of me is long, but at the very least, I know that this is for me

and a doctor I will be.