TURNING 39

 It was my birthday on the first of September! It is also the first day of spring in South Africa. I have never been a fan of big birthday parties since childhood. In fact, I don’t think I had any major birthday celebration since the age of five. Sweet sixteen, eighteen, twenty, and thirty went by without much of a fuss. This time we had balloons and some friends over and we all celebrated. It was a beautiful day full of laughter, and positive energy!

This is my new year, and it is the time for me to sit back and reflect on my life. I have lived quite a life and this part of the journey will determine what the rest of my life will look like in the future. In this reflection, I am going to look at various departments such as health, family, career, and finances.

Being a healthcare professional I appreciate the gift of health every day. Being able to get yourself out of your bed, take a shower, eat, and get into your car to work is an amazing thing. Dealing with patients who rely on help just to make it to the bathroom from the hospital bed gives me a different perspective on life. Knowing all this, getting a couple of grey hairs or wrinkles on my face is the least of my worries. I look good for my age, and there is no shortcut for this. I eat well, sleep well, and stay away from alcohol, cigarettes, and too much sun. we need consistency for good results. I am a bit heavier than what I used to weigh ten years ago, but I have started to eat cleaner and have increased my physical activity. I even now have a fitness watch. I have been watching my cholesterol, blood pressure and doing my pap smears and HIV tests annually. I have a strong family history of diabetes and I hope I can keep it away for as long as I can.

Family is everything. I feel blessed to have my husband and my daughter in my life. It is not always easy to keep a house running and give everyone the attention they need, but I am doing my best. I want to have a healthy family with good relationships and a happy child who will grow up to be a happy girl! Having Middle Eastern parents who will freak out at every little thing that goes wrong with a lot of tension makes me want to do better.

I love my job! I love the fact that you are not quite sure what your day will look like in labour and delivery when you leave your house. It is diverse, we teach the younger medical students and we learn from our mentors. There is room for academic growth, but I am keeping it slow and mellow. I was in a rush to specialize, but the fellowship can wait for now while I enjoy being a general ob-gyn.

Finances have had its ups and downs. We have had phases of great expenditure and growing debt but now we are in the damage control phase. Finances have never been my strong point. I grew up in a middle-class family. We were savvy with money but as soon as I moved to SA and started making more money I started spending more. I did not understand how credit card interest works and how bank interest rates work. After the pandemic, we have had a rise in interest rates and inflation. We are doing our best to pay the debt and try and save effectively for retirement. 





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