My Blog

Tidak pernah ada kata terlambat untuk belajar.

Dosen saya dulu pernah bilang, setiap lima tahun sekali kita harus mempelajari sesuatu yang baru agar sinaps-sinaps di otak kita senantiasa bekerja dan bertambah banyak. Terbukti, beliau masih aktif mengajar di usianya yang lewat kepala tujuh, hebat!

Contoh hidup yang juga menakjubkan adalah promotor saya, beliau meraih gelar PhD di usianya yang ke-60. Walau rambutnya sudah memutih, tapi beliau punya semangat dan rasa ingin tahu yang luar biasa, termasuk mempelajari program statistik yang njlimet untuk sebagian banyak orang.

Ayah saya sendiri baru mulai memasuki bangku universitas ketika saya duduk di bangku SD. Saya masih ingat saat membuat skripsi ayah saya setiap pagi menginstruksikan ibu saya untuk mengetikkan tesisnya dengan mesin tik yang sampai saat ini masih setia menemani ayah saya bekerja. Setiap malam sepulang kerja ayah akan mengkoreksi apa yang sudah diketik oleh ibu. Begitu terus sampai akhirnya beliau berhasil mendapatkan gelar sarjananya.

Terakhir, yang membuat saya tergerak untuk membuat blog ini adalah sms dari seorang teman, tepatnya seorang kakak yang telah banyak membantu saya saat saya masih bergelut dengan dunia klinik beberapa tahun ke belakang. Tepat lima tahun lalu,  saat usianya juga di mid-thirties, ia mulai  memasuki bangku universitas. Kuliah sambil bekerja. Pergi pagi pulang malam, seperti ayah saya. Dan tidak sia-sia, bulan ini dia berhasil meraih gelar sarjananya. Malahan dia sudah melamar untuk melanjutkan program pascasarjana di UI. Motivasinya mulia, mewujudkan impiannya untuk menjadi seorang guru. Insya Allah terlaksana…

Jadi kesimpulan saya, when there is a will there is a way, as simple as that…

One thing I like most from interview is that you can learn how other people live their life in a very much different remarkable way.
As last week, we interviewed with an applicant for a postgraduate master program in occupational medicine. First impression, nothing special: just an ordinary female in her thirties.
But never judge a book from its cover! When she started talking, we suddenly noticed that she is not an ordinary applicant, not at all…

She flew all the way from another island to join this program; she’s the pioneer, my senior colleague said.
And I was amazed just by imagining how she’s going to manage traveling back and forth between the two islands every week.
She has to take all kind of transportation: buses, boats, and air planes and spend not less than 12-18 hours one way just to attend the weekend classes!
Not mentioning how much budget she has to spend to do this as a routine for 2 years!
Not mentioning how she’s going to run her own drug store, rubber plants, and of course working as a physician!
Not mentioning how she’s going to handle taking care of her two kids and her new born baby; basically playing her role as a wife and a mother!

We were worried she’ll be exhausted right from the beginning. But she determined that this is what she wants, this is what her region needs, and her achievement will benefit a very large working population in her region in long term.
We were still in doubts, but she tried consistently to convince us that things will work out pretty well. She said, even during her medical school, she had to do extra jobs to get the tuition fee paid, and still she finished on time with distinction. Finally she said, “I have a great husband… He is willing to work at home by running the drug store and take care of the kids while I am working. I have been able doing all of these because of him and his full support, and I am very grateful for that”.

That 30 minutes interview was very inspiring. We wish the best for her and hope to see her with the diploma in 2010!