Ruminations on a future

I recently had a conversation with a young lady in the village about her future. She is ambivalent in her feelings. At the moment, she is in the final year of high school and will be taking the baccalaureate exams next June. She is somewhat worried about the exams, since the marks she will receive weigh rather heavily and perhaps disproportionately on her overall grades. Given the loose environment in which official exams are given and graded, she expressed some displeasure at the inherent unfairness of the system, but was confident nonetheless. She plans on continuing on to medical school and eventually finishing with a medical degree. Even in this country, medical school is a long and grueling journey, requiring many years and hard work, but without the nearly certain payoff that medical students in certain other countries can look forward to upon graduation. She is not sure what would happen after graduation, considering the inherent difficulties of the job market. Finally, like most young people in this country, she would like to travel and live abroad at some point.

Knowing her, I firmly believe she will succeed in whatever endeavors she undertakes. She seems motivated and hopeful of success. And I think most importantly, she loves her country.