A Little Something about my Life

A friend of mine had once commented that my blog is dead before it is even alive. Well, rightly so, and I kinda agree. The past 2 weeks since Surgery posting started have been quite an experience, albeit an extremely hectic one. Not only is surgery quite a entirely different ball game in terms of physical hours, but it so happened that these 2 weeks have been a period when I had, for a while, many additional things on my plate. These include my first attempt at translating a full-length medical article, my first experience at conducting a choir at a choral music camp, taking up an additional tutee, scrubbing in and assisting in my first operation (despite just holding a retractor and proctoscope), etc. Knowing how long it takes for me to blog, and since I'd very much prefer to finish one post at one sitting, I refrain from beginning one.

Now it seems that the only time I have to blog is when i watch tennis at 4:30am in the morning (Update: Federer just took the first set 7-6 against Djokovic in the US Open semifinal, his 22nd consecutive Grandslam semifinal, following Nadal's shock loss against Del Potro). You absolutely have to love it when you see beautiful shot-making like, returning the ball around the net instead of over the net. And the weather in the US isn't really helping, now that the men's finals is gonna be played live on probably a Tuesday morning in Singapore (due to rain delaying matches on previous days), I'd either miss the match or won't get much sleep before reaching TTSH at 7:30am in the morning.

On a side note, I absolutely love my Mondays. And I really really love them. It's really a precious break for me, because I hardly get any rest during the weekends, needless to mention weekdays. That's because nowadays there are few/no lectures on Mondays, and my students all have lessons in school, so I'm basically free till evening. Hence, Monday gives me time to catch up on studying/reading (be it medical or otherwise), watching movies, or just some time of my own. Therefore sometimes I'm a little bewildered when some of my friends want to go back to the hospital on Mondays. But then again, I shouldn't be critical, because they're really keen and passionate about learning (I must say I do not share the enthusiasm on an equal level) and they probably get their rest at their own time. It's just that since I'm already spending 4x10h in the hospitals on 4 out of 7 days (not inclusive of time spent travelling, which can be quite substantial), I'd really like to spend the rest of my time on other things that I enjoy doing and are of value. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that I hate medical school. In fact, I'm enjoying every moment of it, learning, interacting with patients and doctors. Just that I don't want my life to only and merely revolve around medicine.

Some of my friends (These are friends who truly care about me and my welfare, so I do appreciate their kind intent and concern (:) have asked me is it really necessary for me to have so many students, take up so many commitments outside of school, etc. Well, I'm not short of money for now, and frankly-speaking, if I'm giving tuition just for the money, then I'm really short-changing myself, because I know some of my friends who charge much higher rates than I do. But it really is the fulfillment of seeing my students improve, developing an interest in the subject and a way of thinking and working out the solutions which give me satisfaction. People have said that I should learn to say no. Maybe that is something I should learn, but to me, if you can help someone who's asking you for help, and if it doesn't kill you, I'd be inclined to agree. Afterall, you'd never know what you're missing out on learning or experiencing if you don't give it a try. And trust me, students teach you more than you think they can. And yes, to those who are afraid that I'll burn out, do continue to keep me in prayer and remind me if you see signs of that happening to me =) And yes, I won't forget to make time for my family as well. =)

I've actually cut out many newspaper clippings which I'd have liked to make some comment on or something, but currently they're just sitting on my tray, 10 of them at least. They range from the thought-provoking to the bizarre and absurd.

Well, as I'm watching tennis, I'm not intending on blogging about something totally serious. So anyway, just wanna share a little something about a perspective. I've not, and am not intending to, examined the whole merits and accuracy of this perspective. Just something that came to my mind some time back. (Federer takes the 2nd set 7-5!) Humans' emotions can be quite volatile. You can try to observe a person, try to subconsciously formulate some patterns and theories on how he/she may respond or react to certain situations, but at the end of the day, sometimes they may still surprise or shock you, just when you think you can start to predict how they'd respond. Is it just because people don't really know what they want? Or maybe it's just the complexity of the human psyche. Maybe that's what makes life and human interactions so interesting. And for a person like me who likes predictability, who gets fed up at times when I can't figure out what a person's thinking or what's going on in a person's mind, it is really quite a lesson to learn.

The value of waiting.

Actually I've been done with this post a little time back, just that I'm waiting for the match to finish. Another beautifully excellent shot in between the legs after Djokovic returns a lob. Check it out on youtube, it should be there in time to come. =) Roger through to his 6th consecutive US Open final for a record 6th consecutive title in the Open Era. (: