Ryan Iverson is using his tiny amount of spare time to squeeze in some studying in a corner of the Place d’Orléans Shopping Mall food court. His choice of studying accommodations is the result of a very busy schedule — he volunteers at a retirement home, works part-time at a walk-in clinic, and is a full time student studying medicine at OttawaU. He maximizes his time by stopping at the mall instead of going home.

“Not much of a social life right now,” he laughed, “but it’s all going to pay off one day, I’m sure.”

When asked why he keeps such a frantic schedule, he said “I guess my ultimate goal is to go into med school. More what I’m looking for is the experience of being in a doctor’s office, and being in that setting — seeing if it’s what I want to do. Just watching how busy they all are there makes me say “Oh, I want to do that one day,” but it also makes me say “Oh, I don’t want to do that one day.”

“Everything I do I try to do it with passion. I’d want someone to look at me and see that I’m dedicated to what I do. I try to make the most of everything I can. I don’t mean that I want to inspire other people to work harder, you know what I mean, like, ‘cause I’m inspired by other people working so hard, and other people getting perfect GPAs, so that is what I look up to.”

But for Ryan, he doesn’t feel like he is obligated to push himself to extremes. “Working as hard as I can at what I do is something I really want to do.”

Author: Jake Erskine