Part 1: The 2% Gap and a Vanished Dream
They say your life is defined by the choices you make, but looking back at the summer after high school, it felt like my life was being defined by things completely out of my control.
The Battle for a Dream
Ever since graduation, my house was a battlefield. It was a constant, exhausting fight between me and my family. I wanted to do something meaningful—I wanted to be a doctor. But wanting to save lives is one thing; having the universe align to let you do it is another. We were hit by a sudden financial disaster, the kind that reshapes every plan you ever made.
The Romania Dead-End
For a while, Romania was the beacon of hope. We had our sights set on Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy. We had a contact, a plan, and a vision of me studying in Europe. Then, silence. Our contact vanished into thin air. No emails, no calls, no way to reach him. Just like that, the European dream was gone.
The "2%" Heartbreak
Then there was Egypt, my home country. In the world of competitive grades, I was the "unlucky" one. I missed the cutoff for Med school by a mere 2%. It felt like a cruel joke—a tiny margin of error deciding the rest of my life. While every other college I had been accepted into was already starting their semesters, I was still sitting in Zakher, watching the days go by without even a plane ticket in my hand.
The Sudan Lifeline
I was stuck. I was behind. I was watching my future slip away until a friend mentioned a loophole: Sudan.
He told me that universities there started a month later than everywhere else. It was the "last-minute" lifeline I didn't know I needed. I didn't hesitate. I told him, "Hook us up."
I didn't know it then, but that one conversation was about to take me from the quiet streets of Al Ain to a reality I wasn't remotely prepared for.👇⋯🔜