The Difficult Road to Becoming a Doctor

This is probably one of the most dramatic post I’ve ever written so please bear with me. Haha.

It was nearly 5 years ago when I first decided to enter medical school. It wasn’t really a part of my plans nor my family’s. The struggle was never easy, I had to persuade a lot of people that this was the better plan. My parents were not quite supportive of my decision at first and I completely understand why. We live on my parent’s meager income. My three siblings were all either in college or were about to enter that time. It would never be easy for them to finance my further studies since their priority was to provide us all a college diploma. But they eventually gave in.

My father was about to retire, then, from work so he can help send me to school. The initial plan was to go to De La Salle Dasmariñas since it is only 30-minute ride away from our house and there’d be no need to rent for an apartment or dormitory. I was ecstatic. But the struggle didn’t end there.

Two months before the school year ended (I was a General Science teacher at Miriam College High School that time), I got pregnant. It was certainly out of the plan and it felt like my world was going to crumble. I was earning and saving back then for my future expenses in school. It took me a few weeks to finally be able to recover from the grief of not being able to pursue medical school soon. But my sorrow soon ended, I knew I just had to wait for the right time.

It was in 2010 of June when I first stepped on PLM grounds as a first year medical student. I completely knew that this was a tough decision to make. Being away from my own family for the first time was one of the greatest adjustments of my life. But medical school was a happy place. I am not any different from the typical PLM medical student who spends 8-10 hours of day at school, completely immersed at reading the thickest and heaviest of books every night and gains weight just about almost every month. During weekends, I had to partially isolate and get rid myself of academic work to take care of my son and spend time with Kel. I am one with my classmates who cross their fingers for long weekend announcements just so I can be with them longer. Hihi.

The fact that I am now about to finish 3 years of medical school and go into clerkship in a few days is simply a testament of how the Lord had been faithful to me. He knew just how important this is to me. The fact that I was able to endure 3 years of mental torture and how my parents, husband and siblings helped finance all the expenses were just some proofs. Not to mention all the hardships my marriage and my family had to bear. Everything was a compromise. But it’s probably difficult because there’s so much to learn from it.

So cheers to the good and bad, the ups and downs. Cheers to my soon to be new home—Ospital ng Maynila (Yes, I'm claiming it now. Haha!). Hello clerkship! =)