For as long as Nicole Kanaris, MD, can remember, she wanted to be a doctor. “At the end of school, I remember my classmates feeling so unsure of what they wanted to study next,” she said. “For me, it was always medicine.”
Compared to her peers, Dr. Kanaris could see her path forward clearly, but she soon had to take an unexpected detour. Due to changes that affected the university’s admittance policies, Dr. Kanaris was not accepted to medical school straight away. She chose to enroll in a program to obtain her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and did one year before applying to medical school a second time. “Being a type-A personality, this was a hard pill to swallow,” she admitted. “It was the first time in my life that I had to face something that was completely out of my control.”
This was not the only detour Dr. Kanaris took as she pursued a career in medicine. While she currently owns and operates two clinics in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she practices aesthetics, Dr. Kanaris originally dreamt of being a trauma surgeon. “I completed community service at Johannesburg General Hospital when I was 16 years old, and – even then – I wanted to be in the trauma unit,” she said. “But due to regulations, I was only allowed to work in casualty and maternity. I still remember standing at the red line, looking over into the trauma unit and wishing they would let me in.
“I have always wanted to help people,” she added. “I used to make my parents stop when we drove by an accident so we could try to help. I got such an adrenalin rush from being in the thick of the action!”
This is a sample article from The Aesthetic Guide.
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