just trisha things

We have been celebrating this tiny step so much in these past few months! We have been pausing at every possible pit stop and celebrating every little feat forgetting that this is only the beginning. 

A few months ago, I have completed my internship in the Philippine General Hospital. A training program that everyone deems too hard that it’s worth having its own graduation ceremony! I honestly think that the training program wasn’t that hard as they said it would be. It was enjoyable as much as it was challenging making it a very rewarding experience. What I wanted to celebrate for this step was being able to surround myself and work with great people, and, being able to understand and integrate all the theoretical medical knowledge I crammed inside my head during my four years of medical school. It was an experience of a lifetime and I am very thankful for all the learning and the friendship that I picked up along the way! Yes, a graduation was warranted. I celebrated.

A month ago, I took a 4-day test that ultimately test medical school graduates if they deserve to be called doctors! Some people would like to call it the National Physician Licensure Exam — I call it the Test-That-I-Would-Never-Want-To-Take-Ever-Again Test. It was a very tiring 2 week-long exam which I took unprepared. But it was true what they say; No one will ever feel prepared for this test! This is in no way a deterrent to passing though! The 3-month post graduation review period was a refresher to everything you’ve learned in the past four years of schooling but in the end it’s really in how much you’ve studied in those four years and during your clinical rotations that matter. Anyway, merely getting out alive from that horribly difficult test was another small feat! Yes, I celebrated.

Results to the board exams were released after 3 days (of trembling and crying out of worry and fear at home)! I passed! No words. I celebrated.

And yesterday, they just made everything official! They gave me a big diploma with my name and picture on it which says I’m a PHYSICIAN. There’s also a plastic card version of it that I could put in my wallet! I guess I could flash that to the faces of all those who wouldn’t believe that I actually am one! (HAHAHA)

I finally took the oath where I “pledge to consecrate my life to the service of humanity”… And at that point, I knew in myself that I am no longer just a medical school graduate…no longer just a board passer…but a real doctor given permission to practice medicine. I felt so close to the realization of my dreams!

And yes, it was just like that…I just felt closer. It was merely another small feat that I again chose to celebrate. 

On my way home from the oath taking ceremonies, it was raining really hard and there was so much traffic! I was driving home alone while changing out off my dress and wiping off my make-up…heavily-tinted windows and a lot of stop lights…hope that explains it enough. Anyway, as I go through different levels of undressed, I realized that these celebrations are merely formalities that don’t really mean anything. What matters is what those people who raised their hands and took the oath are going to do after — the reasons why they’re even there in the first place!

I truly hope and pray that each and everyone of us would dedicate our lives to helping out all those in need. To promote health and heal those who are sick without any bias and discrimination. I also hope that most if not all of us know the next step to take after they too have taken off their pretty clothes and make-up — may it be continuing professional training, going back to their hometowns to give back to their communities, doing research, or going into the academe! There are so many paths opened to all of us new doctors~ may we choose well and do well in our chosen paths….

Because now, I know it will be a while again…but I can’t wait for the next celebration!