I rant, therefore I am

Devoted to serve the health needs of the Filipino people

The recent mock accreditation at the College of Medicine (COM) gave the students the “mission-vision scare” where every student must be ready to recite college’s mission and vision statement when an “accreditor” asks them. 

The abovementioned vision of the College is incidentally written on the ballers the Order sells as an IGP. It is also the vision statement I easily committed into memory. 

Med school is not a walk in the park. Some say it is- well, a walk in Jurassic Park. It’s not easy to get through without investing a good amount of blood, sweat and most importantly, sleep. (Good thing there’s this poem Don’t Quit)

But during the times I feel really close to quitting, I ask myself “Ngaa ginhalitan ko man kaugalingon ko sini?”. Then I go back to what brought me to Roxas Hall. 

I think about the ratio of doctors to the population of the country which is 1 in 15,000; and the number of people who die without ever seeing a doctor. I reminisce my interview to enter the College where upon hearing my desire to be a doctor to the barrios a doctor exclaimed, “Maybe she wants a 4x4!”. 

With that, I return to my books and read again. I realize where to begin, what I need to understand and why I need to remember it by heart. 

I have never shared this technique to anyone. In the present era of consumerism, education is seen as an investment. How much more medical school where one invests not only financially and intellectually but much more beyond that. Yes, WVSU-COM has offered one of the most accessible medical education provided for in part by the taxes of the Filipino people. Yet we cannot blame doctors who choose otherwise. A few are called to be healers and a fewer yet who fulfill it for the sake of healing because one would “normally” pursue to return what has been invested. 

I do not mean to be too idealistic about this. I know this mindset would get me through med school. I just hope that this vision be not only a framed phrase outside Roxas Hall, or something we memorize for the mock accreditation. I hope it would be a part of our identity as future physicians.