My Blog

Looking back, I realize that I’ve chosen unpopular choices at least at 2 important stages in my life. First, at high school. When most of the students chose physics as their major, I was among the minority who chose biology. Why? Simply because my teacher gave me a 6-grade for physics, so I told my self, I wouldn’t survive in this major. It turned out that I loved physiology of the human body and later I got my self a "free ticket" to faculty of medicine in Jakarta.

Six years later, right after I got my medical degree, I decided to go for teaching in the community medicine department. I was among 2 of 165 fresh graduates who chose this option, while almost half of my colleagues went straight to a specialization program. Why? First of all, at that time it was already too expensive to do a residency. I couldn’t imagine my self asking my parents to sponsor my study while my sister who was studying in social science had been working since she was in the 2nd year of her college. Secondly, I love working with the community and I love teaching. There are a lot of things we can do in promoting health in our community. This department also has a special postgraduate program in occupational medicine, something that I have been interested in since my 4th year. Moreover, I observed that most of the staffs in this department got their master in public health in US with scholarships. So, I thought I might have a chance to have a free education abroad too… Still remember that night when I informed my plan to my parents. They were  wondering  if I made myself  a right decision, especially when the demand of specialized doctors were increasing and becoming a teacher in Indonesia was not something to be proud of, at least not financially.

However, with no solid proof of financial stability and with that vague dream of studying abroad, I registered myself as a teaching staff at my faculty.  In the first year I had to work double to earn extra money, because the  salary from the department alone wouldn’t cover my travel expenses.  Though, I had been enioying my works. During the day I taught the students, every 3 nights I had a night shift in the emergency room, and every Saturday I worked at the faculty clinic. After 7 months, that very chance finally came…

I conclude that as long as you know what you want and be aware of what you are capable of, just follow your intuition and your heart will guide you… I am now facing another big cross road in my life, with another unpopular choice. Only this time, it is more complex that logical thinking is not so helpfull in making the right decision. I just pray to God, He is the All Knower, may He shows me the right way, amiin…

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 11:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.