“It was my case presentation that day and it was kind of a big deal back then especially in my unit.
We were thirteen in our unit. Out of which 10 were the in the top 15 of our class, me, damo and Sharq were in the bottom ten.
So most of the posting days, we three mostly were isolated from the rest. They took regular cases, did their assignments and did regular studies.
We on the other side of the ward used to pass time on our phones, talk about how god the weed was last night and went for regular smoke breaks in between.
Even during the case discussions, we used to be at the back just trying to get through the class. The others did all the answering, and I was the one who got screwed up the most for not answering.
It was one month of pediatrics posting and every day one of us had to present a case to the professor, the history, the clinical findings and the treatment. Basically we had to know everything about the particular case.
And it was my turn today, I had tried skipping my chance, I had bunked my turn the previous couple weeks but my unit mates finally forced me to take the case today.
I had to take the case over the weekend and I was in no mood to take, so I just copied the case sheet for the case and smoke up the rest of the day. So I was going to recite the case hoped to get away with it.
But the only problem was that that day, the proff who was taking class was crazy strict and eccentric. It depended on his mood.
The situation was made worse by my nerd unit mates, all they cared was studies, they didn’t anything else. They didn’t drink, do drugs or anything big.
They were boring and just followed what the society told them to do. I knew they wouldn’t do anything big in life, maybe future cardiothoracic surgeons and physicians but doctors who were not going to influence the society in any way.
I hated the way they treated us, but I knew I had to just get on. It made me very tolerant.
They had been waiting for my case presentation, so that I screw up and they could insult me and laugh at me, make me feel bad about myself.
They had done it previously many times but that day was going to be the worst.
Prof came late and he looked pissed off.
I started my presentation, the first part of the history went smoothly but he stopped me soon to asses my knowledge.
What negative history did you ask?
Nothing.
He asked me to continue even though he was very dissatisfied.
During my clinical findings he asked me the normal range of the anthropometric findings.
I didn’t know.
He fired several questions after that, none of which I was able to answer.
I knew I screwed it up badly.
He stood up suddenly, snatched the paper from my hand and threw it away to the floor.
You are a disgrace to the college, you deserve to fail all your life. Stop wasting my time he said as he walked away from the class. The whole ward was looking at me as if I had committed some crime. The patients, the residents, even my juniors.
If it was only that much I was ok. Just a temporary thing.
But then my unit mates had to insult me again, except damo and Shaqs. They all pounced on me as if they never did anything wrong. Maybe they didn’t do any mistakes, because they never tried anything new.
After that they bitched about me for the next month. They treated me as if I was not a med student at all. They ignored me, and it was bad.â€
I looked at the jam packed classroom as I concluded my story.
I was back to college as alumni they had invited me to give a speech to the students.
“You know it’s been twenty years since that dayâ€
I looked at my prof who screwed me that day, and some of my old unit mates who were now doctors in the college. I was right, they had become surgeons but today I was on stage speaking and they were listening to me. I mattered, they didn’t.
“Today, I have my own healthcare system which is one of countries top and doing very well. Today those guys don’t matter at all and me, who they thought would end up as a failure.â€
I smiled away from the mike.
“Well the rest is historyâ€
“All I can say for you guys are, try new things, think big and take action. You will embarrass yourself, fail numerous times but keep striving for change. Don’t be the same, don’t be static in life. You don’t want to be in the same position ten years from now. Keep changing, for the good or bad but changeâ€
