Even though she gave up her childhood dream of a career in medicine, Bibi Hijab Balkhi still plans to become a doctor.

“I'm going to finish my undergrad, push through my Masters, get myself accepted into a PhD program and if things go my way, I'm going to be a doctor,” she wrote in her personal manifesto Humanities, the Sciences of the Soul. That passion for her studies earned the English and psychology dual major top honours—and a semester’s tuition—in the “Why Humanities?”

Balkhi’s entry takes the form of a letter to her parents explaining why she chose a path she describes as “not exactly painted as the academic road to success.”

While she may not be able to disinfect a wound, she says, she will be able to spin words into medicine: “Nobody has ever read an anatomy textbook to soothe heartbreak at three in the morning.”

The contest was held in conjunction with Humanities Week celebrations, which conclude today with a Humanities Café at 1 p.m. in the Leddy Library.