There are moments so precious—when such simple joy fills our hearts—that we wish we could immortalise them forever. I’m sure you’ve felt it at some point. I remember feeling it acutely during my secondary school Grad Night, sprawled on the floor with my CCA batchmates, a golden glow across the dim school hall. I just wished that moment were something tangible I could cup in my hands, and hold onto forever.
I felt it again, recently, as I came to the close of the week (Oct 12 to Oct 18). It wasn’t so much a single moment, but all of these moments, these few weeks and months. Every day is memorable. Even on the days when we don’t have lessons, when the day is not packed with activities, there’s never a dull moment.
Monday: First Cardiorespiratory anatomy practical (aka I’m excited)
We have anatomy practicals at our Novena campus, where what we first viewed as images in our slides become something three-dimensional that we can touch and feel. Yes, we have to do all our readings beforehand. Yes, that means we need to know our stuff before going for the lesson. No, it’s not that stressful; the prof will ask you questions on the spot, but, oh, you’ve gone through the slides, so that should be easy.
Prof: (gesturing right at me) “Point to me where is the [insert name of some structure that was probably in the slides but not in my brain] on this specimen.”
Me: (screaming internally) I HAVE NO IDEA (but attempts anyway) *strides forward to the specimen and points with feigned decisiveness at where I think it should be based on a hazy memory of some image on slide 32*
Prof: *raises eyebrow sceptically*
Okay, I’m usually a bit more prepared than that, but I foresee that I won’t be able to say the same very soon (as the amount of content continues to increase). Nevertheless, I love this way of learning, and I love the profs that do this—ask questions—instead of droning on as if it were a lecture. It really stimulates active recall, rather than passive listening. (Of course, if there are profs that prefer to just talk, you can always test yourself along with what they’re saying and start doing some “active recall” calisthenics in your mind. More on that another time.) The added bonus is that it forces you to come prepared for the lesson—and therefore gain the most out of it.
Insight: Anatomy Learning
At LKCMedicine, we mainly use plastinated human specimens (preserved human bodies that feel like hard plastic models—not soft and squishy, if you get what I mean) and the Anatomage Table (imagine a giant iPad where you can pan around and view any part of the human body). You can read more about it in our school’s media release or The Straits Times.
Tuesday: Expedition out of NTU (for friends—and Shake Shack)
This was the first time I travelled out of NTU for lunch. A very long overdue birthday surprise for a close friend and virgin Shake Shack experience? Amazing day. Nothing flamboyant was organised, and I had to rush off for tutoring, but I’ve come to cherish these simplest moments. Any small thing that’s just a little out of the ordinary somehow feels extraordinary.
Quick aside: You only ever get to do this in university. Who could have simply just travelled out of school on a weekday morning to meet up with friends? Twelve years and never have I been able to do that. Freed from imprisonment at last! (Okay, not really, I mean, I truly enjoyed my twelve years in our education system, and I’m immensely grateful for the many opportunities that didn’t include Shake Shack.)
Wednesday: Half-day TBL, dinner with roomie, and a late-night workshop
We had a morning TBL session, which is basically the “theory” part to the same anatomy topics we covered during Monday’s practical. The special part about the day was that I had dinner with my roommate at a nice salad place (P.S. we’re both vegetarians!). It was to “celebrate” the end of her midterms, which caused her quite some stress—from which I was blissfully exempt.
Insight: Exams
At LKCMedicine, we have no midterms! We have two exams: one mid-AY exam and one final exam, with only the final one counted towards our grade (100%). Similar to NUS medicine, we go by a Pass/Fail system.
After dinner, I headed off to a photo-editing workshop. I’ve been attending several of these photography-related workshops recently, because I’m intensely interested but still a novice with so much to learn. (To eschew the degradation of this post into a rambling soliloquy, I will share my thoughts and current philosophy on photography in a separate post.) What made it truly amazing was meeting new people from different courses. I never thought I’d make friends with whom I could converse so easily (and who’d drive me back to my hall at night just because of the sudden downpour).
A very novice edit I did at the workshop
Thursday: Full-day TBL, dinner with house fam, and a late-night run
TBL was fun—as always—so I shall withhold further comment before you grow weary of my blabbering. I then travelled out of hall (again, wow) with my house fam to celebrate a belated birthday for one of us.
Once the few of us got back to hall, we only had time to play less than half an hour of captain’s ball with our house (a Thursday night tradition) before the field lights went out. We had barely broken a sweat. Someone said he was going to run the blue track—the track circling the NTU campus which totals 5km. The blue track had been on my bucket list since forever, but I’d always stuck to running rounds at the sports hall. Should I? After a brief moment of grappling with my screwed-up sleep schedule, I joined him jogging towards the starting point.
What happened next: I ran off the blue track and ended up clocking 6km, spent at least half an hour microwaving soya milk that had frozen into a solid block at the back of my friend’s fridge, and lay wide awake past 2am.
Friday: Science practical and vital signs (way more fun than expected)
After my roommate saved my life with morning coffee, I rushed off to a fully packed day. With my head still fogged, I examined bacterial colonies in the morning and human beings in the afternoon.
I didn’t expect the sessions to be particularly interesting, especially considering I was 90% depleted of life. Surprisingly, the day was engaging—mostly because of the company—and I enjoyed myself thoroughly. The night-time train ride home from extreme west to extreme east was meant to be for some reading and reflection, but needless to say, I blacked out. I was so completely spent I couldn’t keep my eyes open long enough to read a single word.
Saturday: Full-day meeting (what), MacRitchie and açaí (wow)
Sitting through a day of obligatory meetings and presentations was honestly way better than I imagined it to be. Once again, mostly because of the people.
On this day I made a wondrous discovery: it is astonishingly convenient to get from our Novena campus to MacRitchie Reservoir. This hike was planned some time ago as a catch-up with a few high school friends.
The sun was no longer blazing, the temperature perfect, and we talked endlessly as we walked. They filled me in on what they’d been up to, and I reciprocated. It was life in our words, and our world. There was no need for ‘socialising’. I felt free.
By now I was no longer checking Instagram, and was consequently not entirely updated on the most recent happenings in my friends’ lives. But this felt good. In a way, it was exactly how it should be.
We ended the day with prata and açaí. What more needs to be said?
(P.S. Before I stopped, I was using Instagram with the sole purpose of keeping up with my friends whom I don’t see as often anymore. But everyone else’s posts and stories are also there, and the stream of content on the platform is never-ending. One day when I was particularly unmotivated, I found myself opening the app every few minutes and scrolling endlessly—a knee-jerk response out of pure procrastination. Appalled, I deleted the app. I would say perhaps I missed out on a bit. But just the few hours this Saturday was so much more than I could ever get out of a few disjointed snippets on a 9:16 screen.)
Sunday: Boring-est day of the week (but still hectic?!)
I was going to leave this day out entirely for it was “uneventful”. Yet it didn’t feel like it. I didn’t stop running for one second; I was still going forward at full tilt. Barely catching up on TBL prep, tutoring, rushing back to hall when I feel like I haven’t even been home, and getting ready for yet another week.
What I’m thinking right now
We are so used to running we seldom even think to pause. This is next on my to-do list, I’m rushing to the next lesson or meeting, there’s this backlog of content I have to study and revise, there’s this and that I haven’t gotten around to yet.
I’m thinking that all this happened more than a week ago yet I’m only able to sit down and write of it now. I’m thinking that there are still a million things on my agenda but here I am. I’m thinking of how I resolved to cultivate a journaling habit but there has only been one night thus far when I allowed myself the luxury to sit down, drop the double weight of responsibility and time, and put pen to paper:
… I’m at this point again, where there’s a galactic explosion inside of me, and I want to do so many things all at once. Yet I need to tamp down this feeling, for fear that I’d lie awake in bed and accrue even more hours of sleep debt. Yet I need to grapple with my utter unpreparedness for TBL tomorrow … and every other thing that’s upcoming. Yet I need to push it all away with that same pathetic justification—“I don’t have time”—which is but a half-lie.
Let me just tell you, my heart is having epileptic fits now trying to contain all that inspiration that simply wasn’t meant to be caged. I know what I need to do—I need to scribble (synonym: plan) again, set deadlines, and STOP putting off any of the things that have been on my mind since the start of the month—or since last month, or the month before.
That was a week ago. Have I put any of those ideas into action? No.
Hopefully the next time I’m back here, the answer will be different. Wait, edit that: The next time I’m back here, the answer will be different.
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(I hope that doesn’t mean I’ll have to stop blogging forever 🙃 Till next time!)
This page is where I’ll be sharing everything related to life in medical school. The posts here may take on a slightly more casual tone and journal-like writing style. Ultimately, they’re just honest accounts of a medical student’s experiences – which will hopefully give you a glimpse of what med school is really like. 😊