“My heart swings back and forth between the need for routine and the urge to run.”
Vacations don’t last forever, that is the beauty of them. The knowledge that my life will soon run by schedules and duty hours made the few days of holidays even more cherish-able, as I wanted to have all the fun I possibly could. But too much of free time does wear one out, so when our internship joining date was announced, I wasn’t particularly grumpy about the vacation ending. I specifically wanted my last free day to remain completely vacant though, just to enjoy the feeling of being entirely free of responsibility and accountability, both of which would certainly be introduced into my life soon.
The first day of internship was actually an orientation day, and even though it sounds like a benign two-hour event, it actually lasted the entire day. We had to reach college by 8, a rather uphill task. Firstly everyone of us got a bank account made, for the stipend, which we are hoping would go up a bit this year. Eventually the actual programme started, with all the formality and decorum befitting the dignitaries, which included our Dean Sir himself. We were told in one of the addresses that back in their day, internship used to be a period of great merriment – one of thoroughly enjoying work in a hospital, and no binding of studies in the free time. But today it is rather a precarious task to maintain balance between work and studying for the entrance exam, such that we might not have much leisurely time.Sigh.
It was also brought to our notice that we are no more tenderfoot students, but officially doctors now.But no one would trust us to venture anywhere on our own, so we were more like ‘mini doctors’, quite an endearing term. After the ceremony was over, we had a series of lectures on several topics relevant in our internship, like biomedical waste management, CPR and others. While sitting in the classroom full of two hundred students, with my friends, all in white aprons, listening to the lectures, trying to dodge teachers’ questions, while impatiently waiting for the next break time, I thought of how this used to be our daily schedule in college once. And that perhaps this was our last time ever.
It was nearly 6 oclock when we finally got our internship rotations timetable. There was a great deal of suspense and excitement surrounding it as everyone was eager to see how the next twelve months of our life were designed to be. We hastily checked and wrote down our schedule from the intricate timetable and then compared it among us friends. All of us were in different units, something very new to us as so far we had been together in nearly every posting. One of us had Casualty posting to begin with, one had OBGY, one Ortho and so on. When I realised that I have been posted in Community Medicine for straight three months, I wasn’t quite sure how to feel. It isn’t the most thrilling of postings, but it would give me enough time to find my footing before the arduous clinical postings begin. So I have CM for first three months, followed by fortnightly minor postings for a couple months and then ultimately the four major clinical postings in the winter months, till next April. It looks like a roller coaster that will only go upwards, but it seems a nice timetable.
It was nearly twilight by the time we left for home, and as we friends bid adieu to each other we lingered just a little bit longer, each one excited for their individual posting but aware that our lives would never be the same now, and that everyone is on their own from now on. I hadn’t realised it till then, but tomorrow would be my first day of actually being a doctor, or actually a ‘mini doctor’, as our teachers today had called us. Now that I have a bird’s eye view of how my clinical rotations, I feel more optimistic and ready for the upcoming year. There’s a certain protocol of paperwork to be followed in every posting and as of now it seems very obscure, but I’m sure that we’ll figure it out eventually. I have to be present at 9 oclock tomorrow at the Urban Health Training Centre (UHTC), which is a short distance from our college which I have never been to before. So tomorrow begins a whole new chapter of my life, and it promises to be an eventful adventure. Wish me luck.