Sync memories – A blast from the past13 mins read

I was going through my Google photos app, trying to find an old photo from years back when I stumbled on photos from my YBC year. This is not the first time in my use of the app that I’ll stumble on those photos, but somehow on the day in question, I felt nostalgic. I found myself spending several minutes going through those pictures and just reliving the memories.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSD0OKDAuJI/

In that moment, I decided that I’d publish a post on October 4th, the day we have christened as a class as #SyncDay. It helped that for most of this year I have been reflecting on how post-housemanship, we become individuals with our separate paths to tread, as opposed to still being bound by certain necessities.

I remember when we wanted to pick a class name, as is the tradition in CMUL. There were so many suggestions. I can remember Titans being one of them. Syncytium wasn’t even a top contender at the time but I’m glad we settled on it as it really is the name that suits our class the most. There was also another debate on the logo. Ik did great work and gave us a befitting logo with meaning. Peep this link to see some of the other contenders for the name and logo.

The YBC exco elections were also another highlight of the year. I remember how TBS was full and aspirants gave their manifestos. Uncle Doof’s pledge to use enjoyment to kill us and how he made good his pledge.

We kicked off the year with preload, which involved the vuvuzela tradition that is enjoyed only by the graduating set. Every other class always gets upset, especially if it falls around the exams period. I am laughing writing this because I realise how annoying that thing is, but we had to stay true to tradition.

We wore ‘aso-ebi’ to class that day and everyone in the compound knew that something was up. Preload ended with a party which was turnt – turnt enough for Deji Sosanya to give the verdict below.

Next up was the game night, aptly named arrhythmia as the night was full of exciting stuff. It was a pretty fun way to de-stress after classes for the day.

• 

• 

• 

Pulse came next, this was the sporting week. I remember playing volleyball for my wave/group even though I wasn’t the best player. It was just fun to be a part of it.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWYpBQZFOeX/

Sync’posium happened on October 4th which became the sync day. I was a part of the committee and I recall being in a place where I wasn’t certain of what path to take after graduation and being limited to just clinical options. This inspired the suggestion for the theme ‘Uncharted Waters’ so as to have guests from diverse fields come to talk to us about the other possibilities available.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

As good as the symposium was, that wasn’t what made Oct 4th sync day. It was the coming together of a graduating class of medical and dental students to have a concert with all participants from the class.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZeQqfFnXHH/

Our legendary Syncytium Live In Concert (SLIC) was one of the moments that showed the togetherness we had as a class. Drama, music, dance, photography, sound, decoration – everything was done by Syncytians. The hall was full with the whole school in attendance. The success of that day made it so special.

• 

• 

• 

• 

After this, we had partycardia, bloodline and our very last event as students – asystole, which was our class dinner.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Since all of this, we have gone through lots of ‘adulting’ phases, both as a class and as individuals. Less than a year after graduating, we lost a colleague, Dr Stephen Urueye. It was a really sad one as we never imagined that as a class we’d lose another classmate that early. I guess this just points to how unpredictable life can be sometimes.

Now a good number of us are out of the ‘safety net’ of housejob, facing the realities of life as doctors in Nigeria. The interesting thing for me about this period is how diverse our journeys are becoming. From a class who all had to sit for the same incourse or exam to having classmates exploring other fields like conceptual photography, programming and the likes. Even those in the japa journey have different routes.

It’s beautiful to see, but also scary on some level that you can’t really just go with the flow any more. Even continuing in the medical line involves choices among specialities. One really has to think about what he or she is going to venture into going forward.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgLwMRgBCDP/

Today is a good day to take a break and re-live some of the YBC memories and have a good laugh. I know I smiled a lot looking through the pictures and it helped make a stressful day at work more bearable.

As we venture on in our individual paths in life, I hope we all achieve success, whatever the word may mean to us. Cheers to more posts on the group and more enlightening conversations.

Love,

Sisikunmi.