Twenty-Fourteen & Twenty-Fifteen

In retrospect, 2014 had been such a momentous year for me. If it wasn't because of that question of a friend while soberly chatting on New Year’s Eve, I would have not realized all these before the year came into a resolution. And I couldn’t let this pass, to share my gratitude to whoever reading this blog, that 2014 had been such a good year. And I am writing this one full of joy and hope.

It’s the year I finished my bachelors degree, passed the Philippine Nursing Licensure Exam, continued chasing my dream of becoming a doctor as I entered medical school, learned to live (pseudo) independently away from home, and a lot of notable firsts, adventures, new friends, and trials – which I think has made me to the person I am right now. Braver. Better. And I can confidently claim that. There are more significant things I could write about right now, and a day wouldn’t suffice for it – but let me leave you with those in this space for now.

Albeit with these accomplishments and happenings, I know there’s still a huge space I still need to fill in, as I grow and mature as an individual. And that understanding doesn’t end there, because as the year progresses, I believe I’ll be learning more while bearing with me these lessons I learned from 2014:

1.     People come and go, and as an adult, learn to distinguish who to keep and who to let go. As we get older, and perhaps, wiser, there are going to be circumstances in which burning bridges is not only fine, but an imperative thing. And it’s actually not bad. Sometimes, these people you share the same things in common before, won’t always be the people you should be sharing things with the kind of person you are now. Allow yourself to grow, and build new, healthy ones for keeps.

2.     Be the right person. I read a news article that really got under my skin and it goes like this “Focus on being the right person before looking for the one. This involves becoming a happy and confident person who has let go of his doubts, fears, and insecurities” and I couldn’t agree more with this! In my 20s, embarrassing as to confess this, but I occasionally get feeling the need to be wanted. In my psychiatric nursing class during undergrad, I fall under the stage Erikson called “Intimacy vs Isolation” which pretty tells a lot why I, perhaps, occasionally get this feeling (so no judging – because it’s actually normal, and I’m not being defensive about this) But then I realized over a year of being single, I still need to resolve some self issues, and I guess, I have every day to help myself.

3.    Value yourself. In medical school, I found myself trapped in torrential, endless cycle of exams after an exam, generally neglecting my health, which is kind of ironic to say. I devoured myself in cups and bottles of caffeine and sticks of nicotine, which I am greatly aware of that it’s unbeneficial to one’s health, yet still agrees with the idea that I need it to sustain self in medical school. From board exam review to first semester of medical school, I watched myself gain a tremendous amount of bad weight, as I also associated food with comfort when under a great deal of stress. It was horrible, and I felt so sorry for my body. With the start of second semester in medical school, I decided that I need to do something about it, and I need to help myself. Not because I want that hardrock, dashboard, coverboy abs; but I want to help myself regain a healthy lifestyle, walk the talk of a health care professional, and feel good once more. I'll have a separate post about this new challenge I'm taking (currently on my second month) - I'm doing this so I would feel the need to commit to this since I already wrote about it here.

4.     Failure is okay. Never have I ever in my life experienced such painful fall. Being raised in a striving household, and an institution that hammered in our head that “failure is never an option”, I grew scared of the idea of failure. I learned to put my guard consistently on hold, but always with lingering actuality of my vulnerability to committing error, and falling through. How else do you learn about life without making mistakes? But 2014 has taught me how my vulnerability to such fall and pain is alright, and that you are never alone in the rock bottom, and that getting up and trying again is also a nice option after a fall. Moreover it has importantly taught me that you are never your failure, and that it all does get better eventually.

These four lessons from twenty-fourteen are just few of the things I’ll constantly be reminding myself of in this new chapter to fill. And I guess now is the perfect time to fill it in just right, the way right seems to me.

Happy New Year!

Trying To Be An Adult

Few days ago before going back for another rigorous term in medical school, I did my late monthly grocery to replenish some supplies in my dorm room. Doing grocery is actually an entertaining task, especially when you're not the one shedding some cash. But I hate doing it alone, especially not around my mom. Because you know when you're with your parent, you can buy stuff more than what you actually need. But that night, I was alone and was only given some little cash that I need to budget for food and some toiletries. While I was going around in every section, I instantly took hold of some stuff I think I'll be in need of, when in fact, most weren't even necessary. I was failing to think of budgeting the money given to me because it's all that I had for grocery.

Right there, I thought to myself that I need serious help in doing some adult stuff.

Transitioning to adult lifestyle isn't an easy task, especially when you're the youngest in the family. Adding up to that are the circumstances of growing up with two siblings who are ten and eleven years older than you. I thought I'll grow independent and self-sufficient because being always around adults felt like living in an adult life training camp, unknowingly, I was very dependent from them after all. I wasn't really trying to be an adult.

You know the thing they say about life is what happens when you start stepping out of your comfort zone? I guess it only resurfaced when the need of living alone in a dormitory quite far away from my parents was given thought of. Living in a dormitory without a roommate is difficult than what I thought it would be. I'll leave the rest of the story for you in another post. Since I travel from home to school to home during my undergrad days, I never had a chance to do some stuff I think I should've learned before. Like fixing my own laundry, washing dishes, waking up on time, and most especially budgeting money for school stuff, food, bills, and the list goes on.

Although I'm not spending my own hard earned money thus far, I get the picture of how difficult it is to independently make ends meet in life. That's why it scares the hell out of me. And that's why I've always wanted to learn and have control over my spendings, although I find it quite a struggle. It actually pains me sometimes to think that at the age of twenty-one, I still depend on my parents because medical school happened right after finishing undergrad of nursing school, and passing the nursing licensure exam. While life happens to my other friends who are working and earning thousands of pesos now in their chosen careers after nursing school; I, on the other hand, still carrying around heavy, bulky books and pile of reviewers, still a dependent school boy in his all white uniform.

I'm not hating nor complaining of the idea of medical school taking over my chance to be an experimental young adult in life, because I chose to settle on this kind of living. I'm just a little scared of the idea of laying aside or, perhaps, not learning how real life goes outside school. And when god forbid time comes I'm done in medical school, I won't come prepared, probably, in my late twenties, when I'm expected to have a steady residency, and, perhaps, considering starting my own family. Which is kind of daunting and mortifying if coming off guard behind time fall out.

That's why there are times when I'm caught in between thoughts of What Ifs, and if I made a terrible mistake in starting medicine right after college. But then, I realized after writing, reading this post, and before publishing this, that although we have devoted ourselves in a different life path that may take so much time and effort before getting into a real responsibility and independence in the society, we could still try other things and still conquer new obstacles that perhaps will help us grow as individuals and prepare us - like, probably, simple tasks I'm only learning now especially budgeting. And somewhere along trying and learning, some things may not be under our control, and that inevitable mistakes may happen once in a while. I have to pick myself up, try again, and get back on track. And I guess, that's how life will teach and prepare me for another quarter of my life.

The Most Important Thing

This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for quite some time, and I have been thinking very well whether to post this or not, because I never want to give off some negative vibe in this new blog. And I never want to sound pathetic by ranting it all out here. I just realised that by writing about it, I'm doing myself a huge favour because it's like a little therapy, by keeping myself in control of how I'll be viewing it into something less negative.

Before I entered medical school, I was completely certain of my destination, but was never sure of the entire journey and the many extraordinary struggles it will bring into my life. I was definite that it will be hard, but not so definite that it will be harder than what I thought it would be. If there's one lesson med school has thought me in the first few weeks I was wallowing in its puddle of tribulation, it's that it will make you feel small to the extent that you feel like the tiniest organism out there in the jungle, clueless, feeble, and insubstantial. Like any time during the battle, there is a huge chance you can turn into tiny, little fragments, like particles of dust in air, completely purposeless, and easy to disregard. I was overwhelmed by the many changes that was happening. Sure that some people who aren't in the same world as you are in, are probably amazed of what you are doing or what you are up to, since they think it's all fancy, glory, and money in medicine; but in reality, it's not always like that. 

It's also in medicine that I've so far appreciated the song with the lyrics "I did my best, but I guess my best wasn't good enough", because it has been my anthem every time we have an exam, especially during practicals, in which I practically suck. It is only in post graduate school I learned to alter my Maslow's hierarchy of physiological needs, in which I kind of put studying first before anything else - sleep in most particular; safety also counts for some times that I risk studying late nights outside, only to combat sleepiness every time I try to pull an all-nighter for an exam; but food, honestly, was always my top priority - counting loads of coffee, instant, or fast food. And there are actually times that I abuse my body, in which I know is bad, because I resort to food when I'm stressed out or in pain.

Yes. It's painful. It's worse than hitting your leg on a corner of a table. It's painful because the pain is internal, and, sometimes, no amount of remedy is enough to stop the terrible, excruciating pain of seeing your dream's spotlight dim, crash in slow motion, and you try to piece it back together, even though it's still painful. There are also times I would feel alone, especially that I live quite far away from my family. I was right for the many sacrifices that I have to do before and during my stay, but I wasn't so right that I was ready for it. I know how easy to write about it here and say it before, but in all honesty, it was very difficult to do. 

I never thought that it is possible for me to bawl over a course or an exam, because I was never been like that during my undergrad years. But to tell you honestly and shamelessly, that I did. There were nights that I would literally cry myself out to sleep because a) I failed an exam in which I studied very hard, b) I miraculously passed an exam in which I didn't study well, c) I just miss home, especially my mom and her cooking, and the kids at home; but most especially I tear up when I get the thought of I may be disappointing my dad, and just wasting their efforts and money to send me to post grad school and become a doctor, or d) It could be all of the above, in one fragile, emotionally-unstable mind.  

I guess the thing they say about going through a wrath of storm and surviving it, you won't be the same person as you were before, is true. No matter how much we tell ourself and some people that we are still who we are before, we can't deny that experiences we had already shape us into someone who is possibly worse or better versions of us. And the next time the same storm comes in, we are most likely dressed and armed for it. 

I know it wasn't an excellent start in medical school, but my parents have always reminded me that there's always a room for better things to happen, so I have to make it happen. Probably one of the best lessons I've learned so far that no laboratory room, conference room, classroom, or any other rooms in school have offered, is persistence. Persistence because I always hold the power to control it. I have to always remember why started, and why I badly want this, because it started all from there, and it must end from there. I have to keep going, no matter how rocky the situations may be, I'll stick to my holy grail, and I will be best doctor that I can be. 

Other Alvin

I made a promise to myself that I will be letting go of some things when I formally enter medical school. Well, I haven't, at least in this very moment, but surely on the first week of June. And what I meant by "some things" were my overt addiction to killing time, reading unnecessary but brilliant books, watching too much tv series, singing in a chorale, writing for a magazine, and my involvement in to some leadership and youth organizations (and not to mention, some occasional sneaking for night out), which I all equally love doing because it helps me discover people and myself. For it has established a clear view to me, that in no possible means I'll be enjoying the same amount of time I have during high school and college, once I enter medical school. Being able to do so many things with so little time is perhaps one of my guilty pleasures in life. Although stressful and a killer at the end of the day, I still kinda like being placed in a great deal of pressure and see progress, and feel fulfilled afterwards.

If there is one thing I can never ditch, it is perhaps writing blogs and taking photographs, albeit amateurishly. I used to occasionally write in Charming in Silver and Gray in tumblr for almost five years, and it unraveled me to a world that I never imagined could influence me so much. I took a supposedly short break from writing to put academic and organization responsibilities on top of the line, until I have unintentionally abandoned my little haven for a year. I can't blame nursing school for it, I don't regret a thing anyway.

Now, Other Alvin will rekindle my relationship with writing subpar blogs, in a new home, in a new canvass. This is where I'll practice again while I try to keep (some) of my promises, and paint you new adventures through words and photographs of my eclectic interests, and attempt to turn my mundane medical student life into a riveting read.

Welcome and you have reached Other Alvin!

Greet me a happy birthday because it's also my 21st today.