EPISODE 8: NADIV HOSSAIN

Interview by Julia Slyer
Photograph by Emanuel Mordechaev

January 12, 2020

November 2, 2014. A lot of things weren’t going well in my life, and to top it all off, I got into a really bad car accident. It was crazy – the car flipped over, I had to kick myself out through the window – and I walked away without a scratch. Prior to that, I had been really down on myself, but walking away from that accident, I realized – I’m here for a reason. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom mentally in order to move forward and do better.
 
I decided to actively take better control of my mentality. I started putting my energy towards more productive things. I picked up photography. I had been struggling in school, so I made a plan to get myself out of that hole. Through those different avenues, I was putting my energy into the right places and gaining confidence in myself. Now I carry that forward, years later, by constantly working on myself. I’m a very introspective person, and I think a lot about what I can do better, and how to take steps to refine skills, grow my confidence, and develop an emotional maturity to overcome obstacles. Who I am at 26, I’m really proud of. I’m here to do something great.
 
It took me years to ready myself to become someone who’s fit for medical school. Even though it was a fairly long time, I wouldn’t take anything away from it because even the failures taught me a lot about resiliency, and having the courage to look at what you can improve upon, and then having the drive to do better. I worked really hard, applied one last time, and finally got in. To see a long-term goal realized, especially when in the beginning you didn’t have much confidence in yourself, is a really validating feeling.
 
I saw that medicine fits with my personality and the skills that I’ve developed through different life experiences. Medicine requires you to be hard working and resilient, and I pride myself on those characteristics. I’m a person who sometimes has to learn the hard way, and sometimes I end up making the same mistake more than once, but I’m always willing to work on myself to get to that next level. Even though I didn’t get accepted the first few times, when you’re so focused on a goal, you’ll do anything to achieve it. Even if Plan A doesn’t work out, Plans B through Z are just different ways of achieving Plan A.
 
I think character develops through adversity. Adversity has been one of my strongest driving forces in life. I think of adversity as handling your own personal challenges – the self-doubts that you have, the insecurities that you have, the anxieties that you have. Having the courage to see those things in yourself, accepting where you are, and then doing things to master those aspects of yourself. As long as you keep working on yourself, you’ll find that over time those fears aren’t as scary as they were before, those self-doubts aren’t as real, and you’ll start to see yourself in a different light. I’m still a work in progress, by no means am I perfect in any of these aspects, but I’m a lot further than where I was when I was younger.
 
I was born and raised in Toronto in a very diverse neighborhood. I love my home city, and I’m very passionate about it. Growing up, I had a lot of friends from different backgrounds, and the one thing that connected all of us was sports. It really brought us together. And I think sports are a great way to demonstrate that when people work on themselves, it can manifest in something great. Developing strong character through sports can take you really far in life.
 
Once I left university, I started exploring things that I found interesting. I was really interested in medicine, but I started to explore other aspects of my life, like photography. I started shooting in 2015 when Instagram was starting to grow. I would see people posting really cool looking photos, and I wanted to have a creative outlet. I took my brother’s camera, taught myself how to shoot, and started posting on Instagram. Other photographers were doing the same thing, so we’d meet up and shoot together. The photography community in Toronto was growing, and it was cool to meet people of different backgrounds. My whole life I’d been around athletes, and now I was around artists. It was a whole different dynamic of people who thought differently and had different interests, and I enjoyed having those dual worlds of sports and art.
 
There was a time when I thought maybe I did want to be a photographer. But at the end of the day, while I think art is a necessity, I can make a more lasting impact on people through medicine. Art will always have a place in my life – that’s why I joined Humans of NYMC. For me, art is about self-expression – showing the world what you find dope. Art helps to explore your creative side. And you don’t know if you can be a good artist until you actually try it. Like sports, photography has shown me that if I put the time in, I can achieve something.

What are your 5 Most Recently Played Artists on Spotify Apple Music? 
Toronto artists like Drake and The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Roddy Ricch, Summer Walker

If you could have any superpower, which one would you choose?
Reading peoples’ minds

Pick something or someone from NYMC to give a shout-out to!
Shoutout to the Litty Committee!

If someone wants to talk to you, they should lead with: 
Tell me about what you like to do in your free time