Itâs gonna be official in a few so let me just share my thoughts about finishing medical school:
Iâve set my eyes on the prize since I was a young girl. I really wanted that license. As I child, I was an overachiever, and becoming a doctor sounded easy with studying as my second nature. This girl was all work and no play (with a lot of leisure reading in between).
Then came high school, and all my love for math overshadowed natural sciences. It made me rethink: âIs this really the path I want if I can do something that would have been easier for me? Do I want to stay somewhere safe or do I get out of my comfort zone?â My daring self picked the latter. I was lucky to take a course that I was willing to learn and that was approved by my parents. Little did I know that the person that I was and my life was about to change.
College removed my rose-colored glasses and revealed the harsh reality of the world. It scared me. It didnât stop me anyway. I cried buckets of tears finishing a case report because I felt like a failure. Some of my friendships soured, yet the real ones became stronger. My college barkada consisted of a ragtag of personalities, and I will forever be grateful for their trust and love. I bloomed with them, and in the end, it paid off. I didnât expect it, but it happened. For the first time in a while, I told myself I made the right decision. All the sacrifices my parents and I made was worth it.
Several considerations limited my choice when I closed that chapter of my life. I was willing to withhold a dream I painstakingly worked on for the sake of practicality. My parents, bless them, told me not to worry. They granted me that one wish I have coveted for the longest time. After a gap year, I enrolled for medical school, and I got in.
It wasnât easy being in med school. I was living the dream, but it wasnât all rainbows and butterflies in there. We came to that institution as grown people, and friction usually occurs with exchange of ideas or the simplest of encounters. Competition was inevitable, and Iâd admit even when I withheld myself, something or someone would stoke the fire within me. I didnât win all the arguments. I didnât get the highest scores. The child in me would have blanched in horror. I was not as stellar as I aimed to be, and it bruised my ego. But it didnât stop me, just like the battering ram in my zodiac sign. One encounter at a time. One day at a time. Roughly the same amount of tears have been shed (along with more mortalities along the way). It pained me. It grounded me. It taught me. In the end, I made it. We made it. Now, weâre here.
Today, the child that only dreamed to heal people makes her dream come true. Itâs not the ideal set-up. Our marches may have been reduced to the screens of our devices. We may be waiting for another year to have that actual march and to wear that toga weâve all waited for (and of course, that long sleeved-white coat).
It doesnât make our victory resound any less.
Happy graduation, batch 2020! đž
P.S. There are so many people to thank for throughout this journey â family, friends, colleagues (yay!!) and patients. Youâve made everything worth it. Thank you for believing. â¤ď¸ God is good, indeed.