Next on the blog we have Gordon Revolta.
Please get in touch if you wish to share your story ‘after Heriot’s’.
What is your current role?
Soon to start working as a junior doctor.
This will involve tending to the needs of patients, investigating their condition and working as part of a multidisciplinary team.
What was your journey to get there?
Despite having the grades, I didn’t get any offers for Medicine in my final year at Heriot’s. This meant that I took a gap year. Had someone told me at the start of S6 I was going to take a gap year, I would have thought they were joking. During my gap year I worked as a Health Care Assistant in different hospitals around Edinburgh. It was a challenging and rewarding job.
I got an offer to study Physiology at the University of Glasgow. I really enjoyed my time there and met my now wife at the CU. I loved hosting internationals and had the privilege of teaching English to Syrian refugees and persecuted Christians from Iran.
We graduated, got married and moved to Edinburgh. I resumed working as an HCA but also worked part-time as a technician at the Royal College of Surgeons, and got a wee qualification teaching English as a second language too.
Working as an HCA and at RCSEd, I saw people my age progress as doctors. As a technician, I saw doctors being tested and examined, and thought: ‘I could do that’ – though it’s a lot easier when you’re not the one being tested and if you’ve seen the same examination stations done over 80 times.
I met professors and anatomists who encouraged me to consider applying to medicine again. It just so happened that one of the anatomists at RCSEd teaches at Queens University Belfast (where I would go on to work and study). Not sure what would lie ahead or where I would live, I naively asked her: “can medicine be taught online?”. Her answer (in 2017) was: “Absolutely not!”. Sorry for tempting fate, everyone!
I didn’t have anything full-time in Edinburgh, whereas my wife had a job offer waiting for her in Northern Ireland (where she is from originally). I was torn, slightly. After two years of working part time and making job applications in Edinburgh, I still didn’t have a full-time job. Somewhat randomly (at my brother’s wedding) my auntie said she had a dream that I would graduate medicine… Things fell into place and time was right to move.
I was very fortunate to have got a job so quickly. The interview was the day after we landed and I heard back roughly eleven days after that. I worked at QUB for a year while my application for medicine went through. I was thrilled when I got accepted.
The past 6 years studying medicine and being on placement have been quite the journey. I had the privilege of scanning my wife, when she was pregnant, with the ultrasound machine and seeing our son on the monitor. My wife was pregnant during my Obs & Gynae placement and our son was born at the beginning of my Paeds placement! All the doctors teaching me and looking after us were very kind.
Sadly, I lost my father-in-law in 2022 and I lost my mum in 2023. Their legacy of love, support and encouragement lives on.
What are your achievements?
(Some people are able to make things look easy. I have the unfortunate ability of making things look hard.)
I have worked quite hard over the last 14 years so I am pleased to have finally achieved my medical degree. I am grateful to have been afforded the opportunity to study the things I have studied at the institutions I have studied at.
In a sense, I don’t think I have achieved anything on my own. I think the pen of my life’s story has not always been in my hand.
What are your favourite memories of Heriot’s?
I fondly remember the personality and personability of my teachers. They were able to teach full-time and, somehow, lead fully fledged extracurricular activities at the same time. On top of this, they were available to chat if there was something you were struggling with. 
I enjoyed being part of GHS drama and being part of productions. I played the titular orphan in Oliver Twist (the play, not the musical). My grandpa would say: ‘I heard you made your headmaster cry’. I think this had more to do with scenes that had been adapted to include Oliver’s mother (played by someone now on IMDB!) rather than my acting ability.
Any top tips for current pupils when planning their future?
The key is to keep steady. Whatever you want to do or choose to do, it should be something you find some level of enjoyment in and fulfilment in (in my opinion). It’s ok if you don’t know what you want to do. It’s ok not to do every extracurricular activity going. It’s ok drop a subject in S6 if it makes things more manageable. It’s ok to have a contingency plan.
It’s important to avail of pastoral input and those with wise counsel. Don’t suffer in silence.
