Dr Onalenna Nako, Aerospace Medic

Per Aspera Ad Astra

I was born in Ramotswa village, South Eastern part of Botswana in Africa. I grew up underprivileged, with a single mother and my amazing late grandmother in an extended family. Like most households at the time, we had no electricity, running water nor television in the house. Things improved at the age of 12, when my mother acquired a home with all basic life necessities. My source of entertainment has always been books that I initially read through a candlelight. Just going to school meant a 14km walk each day.

These early hardships only motivated me even more to study and excel, keeping in mind the common mantra, “education is the way to a better life” and I applaud my mother for nurturing my ambitions by being a good provider without fail. My basic education began with kindergarten and proceeded to free government education. I never attended private school and I never took for granted the free education opportunity our government provided. I studied hard with the result that I excelled academically and was elected for student leadership roles in school. Because of this, I acquired confidence and a positive mind that propelled me through life.

But this was not without hardship and my high school years were particularly difficult. I had been enrolled in the country’s top high school (St Joseph’s College) where I was now amid academically stronger students. In this new setting, I was unaccustomed to being outsmarted and that became a challenge. I had to develop a survival strategy and I learned that competition can either encourage or demoralise you. It is critical to identify which category you belong to, that can best work for you based on your capabilities to ensure that either way you excel. I realised that it is important to sometimes escape the land of competition, focus on your uniqueness, abilities and your strengths to become the best version of yourself.

From that point on, my goals were dominated by always identifying and focusing on things that were distinct from what everyone else would normally go for, no matter how challenging. Hence why I chose Russia for my medical education after winning a Russian sponsorship, which not only earned me an MD (Doctor of Medicine) but also a Degree in teaching Russian language. Studying medicine in Russia was exceptionally difficult but adjusting back to medical English after returning home presented an even greater challenge. I found myself struggling with speaking and writing English as fluently as before as my vocabulary was insufficient. My confidence was dented and I felt inadequate especially during my medical internship year. However, I didn’t give up, I worked hard the best way I knew how, until my English improved again. Thereafter, I joined the military; something unusual for female doctors in my country and then choosing a medical speciality that is niche and unfamiliar to most, which I studied at one of UK’s top universities.