The hammer fell today.

... to reveal that I've been offered an 8-year training program in paediatrics in Scotland. It was my first choice that I interviewed for this time last week. It didn't seem real. Up to the minute when I saw the big box with an "Accept" option next to the application details, I had fully been prepared to find I was either ranked with no hope of a job, or simply not ranked at all. I had already started to look for locum jobs in the UK and considered what my options overseas were.

My life has been filled with some absolutely incredible miracles of the size of a nebula. I was born on a small island which was a developing country considered part of Africa; the children around me in school scavenged the bins for food and the football grounds for money; in school, leading up to my A-Levels, I had a writing block and could no longer produce a single essay... At many points in my life I was on a clear path to crashing and burning. Each time, I have witnessed God reaching and pulling me up and onto my feet again, placing me on a pedestal worthy of the name my parents gave me - "Aaliyah", elevated.

Some people laugh at me when I tell them my outrageous dreams - that I would love a baroque palace, for example. But if you won't dream big, you will never achieve anything big. Where I came from... to where I am today... it's an incredible journey and it's far more insane than owning a baroque palace, because many have owned baroque palaces, but nobody has lived my life.

It's not all magic. It feels like I've reached the end of a tunnel. I know that the real fight begins now, but for now I'm going to enjoy the feeling that I've won a battle of overwhelming odds.

Dream big. Always dream big. And work on those dreams - the apple won't fall at your feet.


Exillior

P.S. I clean forgot to thank you guys for all your Valentine cards! Will the anonymous senders please step forward, because I have no means of thanking you otherwise, you sneaky creatures.