Part 2: My Journey intoMedicine

My College Years and MedicalSchool

Pre-MedicalClasses

I realized that the decision about my future was sealed with my father’s death. Between the mismanagement of his condition by the doctors in Cyprus, and my own uselessness to answer his call for help, I knew I had to become a doctor and be of service to humanity. I knew I could not save the world, but I also knew I could definitely save some people and all of the thoughts I had about going into business evaporated into thin air. I knew what I wanted to do in life, and I knew that, no matter what, I was going to fulfill my dream of becoming a doctor. I had two choices for medical school—England or the Athens University Medical School. I wrote letters to several English medical schools about entrance requirements and learned that I needed to pass the GCE (General Certificate of Education) and all of the requiredsubjects.

The GCE I could take in Cyprus by joining a special program at the English School in Nicosia. The two-year program was tailored to high school graduates that wanted to study in the UK. The less expensive way was to first meet the GCE requirements in Cyprus and then head to medical school in theUK.

I applied and enrolled in the English program and took the necessary subjects needed for medical school. It was an interesting experience studying advanced level biology, chemistry and physics. I had always loved physics when studying at the Pancyprian Gymnasium but did not care much about biology and chemistry. But when I studied those subjects at the English school, I came to love chemistry and biology in addition to physics. I had realized later that the earlier chemistry and biology teacher was not qualified, and we never got deep into the science. At the English school, I discovered that both chemistry and biology were interesting andintriguing.

In biology, one of the first things we did was dissect a Squamus Acanthias—a dogfish—and identify the different parts of its anatomy. The fish was preserved in formaldehyde, which was irritating to the nose and the eyes. Squamus Acanthias was different from other fish, because it has a skeleton of just cartilage and no bones. Further, it did not lay eggs, but gave birth to live offspring. It is a small fish, about 12 inches long, and readily available in the central Nicosia fishmarket.

Like our father earlier, Costas was going to the central market every day to buy fresh vegetables and meats for the family super store. I asked him to buy a few dogfish so I could dissect them at home; he got me plenty. One of the fish seemed kind of fat, so I opened it up. I found two pouches filled with baby dogfish. I stopped dissecting and brought it to school the next day. It was then preserved in formalin so it could be displayed in the lab for future classes. One day after finishing classes, I decided to dissect another dogfish at home. I gathered a fresh dogfish along with a board, some pins and my biology book with the squamous acanthias anatomy and brought everything to my bedroom. I placed the dogfish on the board and secured it with the pins like we did in the lab. I then turned to the book’s dissection information and opened the fish with a scal