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"Life is not a bed of roses", I have been holding onto this phrase dearly ever since I was in high school. Life is indeed not as easy and colorful as what we have watched in movies. If we do nothing to live, we will earn nothing, and we are bound to have a hard time in life.
I still remember during school days, I used to feel doubtful about my capability to achieve what I have today. I was worried that I will not be able to enter university or end up jobless. My biggest weakness in life is that I’m afraid of failure. Before I went to the matriculation programme, I was accepted into Form 6 in science stream. I doubted myself if I will do well in the science subjects, so I decided to choose the accounting stream. After a few weeks of going through the subjects that are foreign to me, I realized that I am not meant to be in this field. My heart wants me to be in a science-related field. Hence, I switched to matriculation programme for the second intake to pursue science stream. The mindset I had when I was in Form 6 that I could not do well in science subjects proved me wrong. All praise to God, I passed my matriculation exams with flying colours and I got accepted into medical school in UNIMAS. The message I try to convey from my story is, do not ever feel afraid to try. Although we think it is impossible to achieve our goals, just believe in yourself. Pray for the best. Everything happens for its own reason.
A few weeks ago, I came across one post on the Instagram, which says
"Medical school is the hardest experience of my life, but the first time I heard ‘Thank you, doctor, you saved my life', I knew it had been worth it."
Based on my experience in medical school for almost one year, I had to go through tough times, but I felt that the hard times that I went through was all worth it. I used to cry a lot when I could not understand a topic in biochemistry and used to have sleepless nights to study before the next day’s morning lectures. However, for me, medical school is not about shedding blood, sweat and tears. I do have plenty of good memories as a medical student. I used to have good times with my roommates when we studied anatomy together and went on a few mini vacations after exams. Trust me, being in medical school is extremely exciting. The experience is like a roller coaster ride, sometimes life takes you high up and sometimes life takes you downhill, but the knowledge you learnt is worth it for your future.
Other than the medical knowledge I learnt in medical school, I also learnt to appreciate my time so much more. There is a Chinese proverb I really love that describes how valuable time is, “An inch of time is an inch of gold, but an inch of time cannot be purchased for an inch of gold." During medical school, we are packed with a lot of medical terms and topics to digest in a short time. Since my university uses block system instead of the semester system, so we will sit for 6-7 weeks of lectures and then go through exam week. Imagine us having to revise pathology, physiology, anatomy, pharmacology, biochemistry and many more in a few weeks before sitting for an exam. Not to forget, cases write up and studies that needs to be done when we are in our practical years. When I was still new to this system, I did not appreciate my time well enough and ended up procrastinating for my revisions and studies, where by my grades suffered badly. From then on, I learnt my lesson, I realized for a medical student like me, as a doctor in the future, time is important. Golden. A medical student must be wise in managing time, for studies, prayer and leisure. Achieving an optimum balance in life where there is time to be focus in studies and also time to be enjoying life. YOLO.
Last but not least, learn to be humble in anything that we do. I believe that the social stigma in our society of being a doctor is that it is a noble job and worth to be proud of. Trust me, if you tell your aunt that you are a medical student, she will probably say you have a bright future ahead and will earn lots of money. However, to achieve what we so-called bright future as a doctor definitely has a long bumpy way to go. I know we all are so proud that we are finally able to enter medical school after going through countless ups and downs, achieving flying colour results, but that does not mean we can look down on people who are not in the same place as us. My mom’s advice “A great human must be humble,” always rings a bell in my ear. Even prophet Muhammad SAW was a humble man, so who are we to be arrogant as we are only a normal human being with a title of a doctor? I have seen a few medical students who were so arrogant and extremely narcissistic, who like to condemn and underestimate other people who are in a different course. Having a mindset that doctors are cleverer and better than any occupation in the world is disrespectful. A doctor must be respectful to everyone. Please, learn to respect other people’s passion. If we continue to be like this, when we become a real doctor one day, we will still bring this kind of attitude to work which will cause lots of troubles when we face our patients and colleagues.
Out of the billions of populations on earth, many of us can become doctors because most of the new generation are brilliant and always equipped with fresh new ideas. However, to become a doctor who is brave and humble, not many people are capable of doing that. We will never always get to be on top of the hierarchy and stay healthy forever, eventually we are going to be weak and old. Hence, it is that moment when you will realize the real meaning of life.
Liyana Qiestina binti Abdul Haris Kerk is a medical student at UNIMAS. She is also a hardcore EXO-L who has a big passion in saving lives, emotionally and physically.