new chapter

Out with the old, on with the new.

After getting my diploma yesterday, I have decided that another chapter of my life has officially ended. Yesterday's graduation was my fifth one, my longest one (lasting for 6 hours!) and the one I worked hardest for.

Yup, I worked harder for this degree more than any other thing in my entire life. So it's probably just fitting that this is my highest degree yet. I doubt if this will be the last degree I'll earn, but I know that I probably won't work this hard again for a degree, any degree.

24 hours hadn't even passed since I have been officially given the degree of doctor of medicine. However, more than enough time has been spent thinking if I really deserve this (now I know in my heart that I do), and much more time contemplating if I am ready and able to handle the power and responsibility that comes with the letters MD. Maybe I'll spend the rest of my life learning how to come to terms with this. It is now so tempting to just throw it all away and start anew in some other field.

But I just can't do that, not if I want to be honest to myself. Somehow, through all those sleepless nights and eleventh hours, it has become clear to me that this is what I was destined to be. And though it may take several more years and more tears, sweat and blood, I know I'll never be content in doing anything else other than to harness this power that I had been chasing all my life and only now has come to possess.

But then again, I'd always wanted to be a race car driver.

written on 23 April 2005