10 hectic, insane months of clinical postings over. We're more than halfway through medical school, and graduating in 2 years. It's crazy how time slips past your fingers. At the start, 5 years was just so impossibly long. But in the midst of it, knowingly or unknowingly, you're drawn into it faster than expected. Studying for our 3rd professional examinations was really despairing. There's so much more to learn and absorb, and I feel like I'm not ready to graduate and start looking after patients after merely 5 years of education.
The holidays have been good. I busy myself with random things like exploring random nooks and crannies of Singapore, dancing, and learning Bahasa Melayu which is susah sekali! Learning a language at this age is definitely not easy. Even though Malay is not as pictorially complicated as Chinese, the words are so difficult to pick up. It's quite funny that the Malay slang that we use in everyday life like sekali/sama-sama/lagi, have very different meanings from the expressions we mean them to be haha.
My legs are really sore from all the dancing, especially after doing endless amounts of pirouettes en pointe each rehearsal so that my legs don't fail me on stage. I enjoy it all the same; the time spent rolling around in the studio because we're just too tired to get up, going on spontaneous dinner/supper dates after class, fretting over pirouettes and fouette turns and developpes. I've been dancing as long as I can remember, and these moments are magical every time.
I also underwent a tiring week of Cardiology with one of my friends. The doctor to whom we were attached to is intimidating in many ways, but yet after attending his clinics and observing how he interacts with his colleagues and patients, I was so inspired. After 1 year of shadowing doctors and being around in the clinics and wards, we've seen alot, been inspired by some, disillusioned by some. His practice, however, was how I envisioned medicine to be like at the start of medical school. Patience, sincerity and humility.
It amazed me how dedicated this team of doctors were to their work. Cardiology involves many interventional procedures and it's similar to surgical practice in some ways. We were stuck in the cath lab until 8.30pm one day because we were asked to stay and observe a diagnostic cath procedure for one of our patients. I've always been interested in cardiology as a subject, but there are so many other considerations when it comes to pursuing it as a career. Well despite the long hours and standing/walking until my lower limb varicosities became prominent, I gained alot over that week. I love learning when it's not the school term and you can take your own time to understand and appreciate things.
We're flying off to India in 2 weeks! It's rather exciting, I hope to gain many new experiences and come back more enriched and humbled.
