"Ateneo did not choose you because of your college grades and NMAT results, nor your background. We chose you because we thought you are capable."
Those were the words from my mentor. She is actually not just a mentor. She was a life coach!
During my last session with her, she made me reminisce the things I encountered over the past 9 months of med school. Over those 9 months, I experienced a lot of problems - siblings going abroad, another sibling battling loneliness, a close aunt diagnosed with cancer - added to my burden of getting along with med school life, new school and peers, and acceptance of the consequences for this decision I made.
Life's a bunch of choices. Each choice has its own consequences. You have to carefully decide which one to take. I decided to take the path to becoming a physician. Unfortunately, I was not able to take a good look at its consequences.
Being a doctor sure has its perks. In the Philippines, most doctors are at the top of the social hierarchy. They make good money. But becoming a doctor is not a smooth ride. No, not at all! I just finished a year in med school. But my experience probably does not justify how hard it can get for the next 4 years - or for that matter, the next decades of my life.
But after 9 months during my first year, I was able to accept my decision. Actually, I was able to realize what I want. If not medicine, then what? There's no way but med. I thought it was just my dad's idea. But I would not give in to his frustration just like that. I basically built my life to becoming one, I just did not know that earlier.
Upon realizing what I want, things fell into place. Each day, I was able to picture myself in the next school year, and the year after that, then the year after... I was able to picture myself doing clinics, rounds, attending conferences, being a leader, a follower, a manager, and as someone being managed. I thought of being a student for a specialization, a teacher for that specialty, probably the next dean of my school, or the secretary of the Department of Health, who knows? But definitely, I'll be a social catalyst.
When I revealed that to my mentor, it was the only time she told me why Ateneo picked me. They would not have probably picked me for my college grades - they sucked more than my classmates'; probably not for my NMAT grades - the other schools do not even want me for it; probably not for my background - I'm just the son of two corporate slaves aka "professional workforce" who can pay for the tuition. Ateneo picked me because they thought I was capable. I had the potential of becoming the kind of doctor that they want to mold. And that potential should not go to waste.
YL6, bring it on.
"The richest places in the world are the cemeteries. These places are rich in potential - potential that could have made this world better - only that they are buried 6 feet under." - quoted from a book by Kuya Carlo