Monday, July 14, 2003
Met Auntie Elaine and Co. on the way out for dinner. As expected, they launched into a conversation centering on my overseas medicine education. Ever since I returned to Singapore in the wake of the SIA retrenchments, I've been pelted from all angles with snide enquires about my financial state. " I'm managing," I politely reply. " She's happy, the parents' aren'nt," My mom jokingly said as she shot a meaningful glance at me.
" They are just concerned," she assured me when i remarked that it was the umpteenth time I had heard the question. Well, maybe I have the bad habit of thinking the worst of people and reading too much into their comments. Don't get me wrong, I don't get unreasonably irritated when I hear friends ask me about my situation. I appreciate their genuine concern. But it is those people whom I don't know well who have the audicity to throw in that demeaning tone that clearly spells out the words " You are obviously too inferior to get into the local uni so you take off with a M & F ( Mother and father) scholarship to study med at that sorry excuse of a uni," who irk me. .
Here's what I got at my recent dental checkup...
Dentist: " So where are you studying?"
Me :" Medicine at Melbourne Uni."
Dentist:" Ah hah, you didn't get into NUS is it?"
( At this point he had jammed a device into my mouth while I was trying to sputter out a defence)
Dentist ( smugly) :" Most people who can't get in do that..."
People in Melu Med who failed to get into NUS certainly have intellect and personalities far more desirable than some of the local medical students I know. And so what if they failed to get into NUS? We will all graduate as doctors. I highly doubt a patient lying on death's door would suddenly stir on the operating table, enquire about the education their surgeon had received and walk out because they feel that the doctor is uncompetent. Or perhaps they might...
" They are just concerned," she assured me when i remarked that it was the umpteenth time I had heard the question. Well, maybe I have the bad habit of thinking the worst of people and reading too much into their comments. Don't get me wrong, I don't get unreasonably irritated when I hear friends ask me about my situation. I appreciate their genuine concern. But it is those people whom I don't know well who have the audicity to throw in that demeaning tone that clearly spells out the words " You are obviously too inferior to get into the local uni so you take off with a M & F ( Mother and father) scholarship to study med at that sorry excuse of a uni," who irk me. .
Here's what I got at my recent dental checkup...
Dentist: " So where are you studying?"
Me :" Medicine at Melbourne Uni."
Dentist:" Ah hah, you didn't get into NUS is it?"
( At this point he had jammed a device into my mouth while I was trying to sputter out a defence)
Dentist ( smugly) :" Most people who can't get in do that..."
People in Melu Med who failed to get into NUS certainly have intellect and personalities far more desirable than some of the local medical students I know. And so what if they failed to get into NUS? We will all graduate as doctors. I highly doubt a patient lying on death's door would suddenly stir on the operating table, enquire about the education their surgeon had received and walk out because they feel that the doctor is uncompetent. Or perhaps they might...
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