One Last Time

Back in Dublin (not quite.. actually in Waterford for a month's rotation right now) for one last year as a student. The last time I ever come back from a "summer vacation" to resume studies at an academic institution. The last student card I ever get issued, as well as the last set of student discounts I'm ever going to recieve on all my purchases.

June 2006. The promised land for so many years now.. and its finally within sight. There was something so distant about my final year (or Final Med, as we affectionately refer to it). The fact that I was going to spend an age and a half in med school while all my high school friends went off to enjoy their brief spell as university students before starting to pull in the redback (bahraini dinars, of course), it was something that I used to get taunted about. Back in high school no one would even consider medicine because of the amount of time spent studying (5-6 years in the UK and Ireland, up to 8 years in the US) but I chose to take a step in that direction and try to survive through it.

My oh my has time flown by. I remember arriving here as a child, in both body and mind.. the shit that I've had to grow up through.. I mean, at 17 how much do you REALLY know about anything at all? After all is said and done, however, and looking at how everyone else's life has turned out.. I'm pretty glad I chose to stay a student for such a long period of time. I honestly needed it to mature enough, God knows it took me 4 years to just get my head on straight and focus on what I was here to do to begin with. Everyone who's back and working in Bahrain struggled to adapt.. at 20 and 21 you still want a few more years of the relatively worry-free life of a student. Your sole responsibility is towards your studies, you don't have to fret about real-world issues. Granted, I've been lucky enough to be blessed with parents who have given me all that they can, and have been so generous as to pay for all my expenses and my tuition.. and I hope to repay them by making them proud on my conferring date of June the 1st, 2006. This one's for you Mom and Dad, thanks for everything.

Its an unwritten rule here in RCSI that you're only allowed to drape your stethoscope around your neck when you make it to your final year.. its almost a rite of passage. As I type this I'm sitting here in Waterford with my stethoscope around my neck, freeing up one of my lab coat pockets for other items such as my phone and my wallet. It feels good.