Many of you will know that a majority of us third years have been through an interview that will decide whether we can stay in college or not next year. Why are we going to these interviews in droves, you ask? Doesn't UPM medical students automatically get to stay in their hostels (K17) despite the level of extra-curricular involvement? A big reason this happened would be because we had previously thought there was no point in collecting merits as we had thought we would be staying in the KL Damai hostel next year when we have our postings in our 4th and 5th year. Because of politics and a lot of red tape, imagine the surprise, the slaps on our unsuspecting faces when we hear that there will be no KL Damai hostel and there might not even be a renewed contract with HKL as a teaching hospital for UPM anymore as of 2012. That's another story, and the issue is far more complex, but let's talk about the merits and staying in K17 part.
Medical students used to be priviliged enough to be able to stay in college without having to collect merits like other students, the cream of the cream syndrome if you ask me, so the few of us that do join these activities were seen as fools, and some were even advised by colleagues to quit medical school (with good intentions, of course) *ahem ahem*. Most of us won't even go out of the college to have a jog, preferring the creature comforts of our dorm rooms, let alone become chairperson of an event! So one wonders why should one get involved in these silly activities that nobody remembers in a few years time? I've heard of people saying medical students are so busy, they don't even go out to buy their own dinners! I've also read newsclippings relaying the opinion of some nerdy med student saying there is no enjoyment when studying medicine, only hard work and duty. Those "facts" are only true if you want it to be.
I have had the best time possible, and have learnt so much from being in UPM, and I've only gone through third year! I never would've thought it would be possible since I honestly hadn't even known UPM existed before I searched it up to fill in my UPU form. I tell this to so many people, but it bears repeating: even if I could re-wind time, my first choice in the UPU form would still reflect that I want to be a medical student in UPM. Had I joined UM, UKM or USM I wouldn't have been able to join debate, I wouldn't have learnt the stuff I did, I wouldn't have been able to form the great relationships with the medical students, the staffs or the students from other courses. I would've never been able to gain working experience with my employers, some nasty, some nice. In short, I wouldn't be the person I am today .
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| Kem perkasa! |
I think if I was to tell the kids about my time in UPM, the best thing would be about the fun I had joining the UPM debate team. (Of course, academically, clinical year was the best fun I've ever had learning.) It wasn't even hard to join debate because all you needed to be able to do was to speak "Yes" and "No" and you're in. Read the news and humanities journals? Learn economic/political/social theories? Um, yeah.. not really. I met with people I would've otherwise never did in K17, law students, fine art students, from Sabah, from Kyrgyztan, from other UPM colleges, previous medical graduates of UPM (hi Sooch!) Finally, it feels like I don't have to commit suicide by slitting my wrists with all my medical notes. I hadn't been able to join more tournaments since clinical year due to financial problems but I should hope that's about to change in 4th year.
Likewise, there are many seniors that's been vice president of the college MTM, MPP representatives, AIESEC members, thoose active in religious societies and so forth. Some can sing, dance, act, or all three and they do it well! Some have organized several big events and made it into the news! Some of them have their own side businesses and are able to afford cars on their part time jobs (hi Kak Ikin!). Some are married by their second, third, fourth year (hi, um.. nevermind). Don't think that a medical school limits you from having a life, because only you can decide that for yourself, not other folks propagating "truths" like to be a good doctor, one must study 24/7. Your life and how you balance it is up to you, so take control of it. People do ask, "How do you balance your studies?" I have no answer for this because I'm still not good at it even if I'm not active in extra-curricular activities, I make do with I have and I'm always improving my time-management.
University life changes you, that's a given. Thing is, you can choose how it changes you. If you want to be the boring nerd who doesn't meet people, who doesn't go out of his/her room, and kirim makan instead of going out for a breath of fresh air, i.e a person who basically doesn't exist, that experience will stay with you for the rest of your life. I've been that person, during my matriculation, it was alright, but I was always wondering if things could have been better.
See, I'm not a better person because I joined a lot of activities, or because I pretend to speak English well. Neither am I a person to be looked down upon because my medical knowledge is not up to par with the top ten students. These all have no merits in the single determining value or worth of an individual. Rather, what does have bearing on a person's quality are more holistic, it takes into account his intellectual, physical, spiritual and emotional maturity. My advice is, since we are busy, I'm not going to lie, pick one thing you love doing and kick ass at it. Whether it's dancing, politicking, footballing, doctoring, whatever, be involved! After all, you need awesome stories to tell you kids about university life right?
I had gone into the interview mentioned previously with anger and rage at a system that I did not believe in. I had strongly believed that extra-curricular activities did help strengthen my character but this merit system didn't as it was flawed in the sense that it only gave out merits to time-wasting activities that did not help build character whatsoever. I had planned to repress all that anger for the sake of staying at this college, which held many bittersweet memories and teaching moments for me as a student in UPM. Sadly, this did not happen, and I said what I thought of anyway since I have the inability to lie or dress up my opinion into something fake. Anyway, I had thought the better way to go about it was, to be quiet and complacent and go with the flow without saying anything because it won't be my problem when I move to KL next semester. In hindsight, it was probably not the best way to go.
I started seeing their point of view after awhile and had thought about it later on. I couldn't be complacent and propose my disagreement through silence. See, my general beliefs about being a citizen of this country, is that as a person of this country, you not only have a right, but a duty to criticise your government in any way and in any medium you can. More importantly, you should go beyond that, vote, advocate for your beliefs, volunteer. So lately, because of these beliefs, I had sought to change the way I spend my time. I guess, in the same way, it should work out for the college too. The college is sort of like a mini institution working for our benefit, and as citizens of this college, we not only have a right, but a duty to voice out your criticisms (constructive, mind you) and actually do something. That is, if we want to stay here. It makes sense, I guess. If the college goes down the drain, it won't be because of ineffecient and uncreative management, it will be because you stood by letting it happen when YOU could've said something. So these folks looking at me as if I was some sort of resurrected Hitler weren't entirely wrong about the whole situation.
There were many take home values from that strange encounter. I was dreading going through that interview, not because I was scared, but because in the sense I had previously thought it was a silly formality, but I had come out of it positively pregnant with ideas, of how it's possible things I want can be done. It's no longer a thing the college did to fulfill ISO requirements, but it was potentially leading to better things. Even in places like UKM, second years are being kicked out for being non-existent in their university apart from time spent in their dorm rooms and faculty. Like I said, this issue is far more complex and deeper than collecting merits, but that's perhaps another topic for another day.
Retrospectively, the "judges" firing their questions at me were probably as angry and dissapointed as I was at first. But when the interview was over, I had no idea why, but I had felt generally happy and positive that I could do something to benefit not only medical students, but this college. Will update more on this later. But I hope you guys will start thinking of becoming a lot more participative too in not only joining these events, but creating and planning the events you want to participate in. You may ask, "How does that make me a better doctor? It doesn't give me medical knowledge, it doesn't make me have friendlier relationships with lecturers, and it definitely doesn't go in the exams! Dating with my girlfriend already gives me enough soft skills!"
And thus, I reply to you with this quote from Martin Luther King which I hold very close to my heart, “Whatever career you may choose for yourself - doctor, lawyer, teacher - let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man. Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in.”
Nazirah, 3rdyr 2010/2011
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