Question: How did you stay motivated when you didn't get accepted into mediciene at first

Zahra Massoud answered on 23 May 2022:

It was difficult, I won’t lie! But I’m a planner – I like to have a good idea of what my next move is. So when I didn’t get into medical school, I was sad for a long time because it had “ruined my plan”! But at the time, I had to think of alternative ways to get what I wanted. I had applied to do a science degree (in Cancer Biology) anyway, as a back up, so I thought I could do that, focus a lot on the medical science of cancer, and use that as a springboard to go and study medicine afterwards, on a graduate program. I worked towards that for my first few years, so seeing that bigger picture really motivated me. But then I found I was enjoying the cancer science so much, that I decided to try and stick with it instead of doing medicine! Now I really wouldn’t want to go to medical school, I’d rather do this! So focus on the bigger picture, and finding alternative ways to still try and get what I want really helped me 🙂