The Great Balancing Act

"So be sure when you step, step with care and great tact,
And remember that life's A Great Balancing Act!"

'Oh, the places you'll go' by Dr. Seuss

Believe it or not, I was first introduced to Dr. Suess when I was 16 years old.

Anna, who was 18 at the time and my very first soulmate, read to me her favourite book, 'Oh, the places you'll go, and I loved it.

Since then, I have found the wisdom of Dr. Seuss to be very relevant to my daily life.

From my observation, life is a circus - Not only is it A Great Balancing Act, there is also plenty of juggling involved. And sometimes, there are clowns (both of the funny and scary variety).

At the moment, I am juggling the end of my formal medical enrolment with the beginning of my medical career. This involves keep up with my medical studies in term of the university's curriculum and assessment requirements, along with all the on-the-job learning that I do on my clinical placement everyday from before dawn to beyond dusk, and at the same time, address the requirements of my internship applications for next year which includes months of researching different hospitals and training programmes, CV and Cover Letter writing for each hospital, obtaining spectacular references, and lastly but most importantly, wow-ing the interview panel with my dazzling charms and sparkling personality. If I can manage it.

Trust me, it's not easy.

Where do I find the time? The short answer is, I don't. But life goes on regardless.

In the end, I do the best I can, the only way I know how.

For internship, I applied to 25 training programmes and have so far completed interviews for 10 of those places. It took a lot of time, planning and effort, and at random points in the process, I was utterly mentally, physically, and emotionally drained. Some of my interviews were hours and hours of away from each other, after which I still had to go to work the next day, and for the past three weeks, I've had multiple interviews per week, some of them back-to-back.

But this is the price we pay. Our time, effort, and energy is the sacrifice we make in order to increase our chances of getting to where we want to be next year. Having said that though, even after all that, nothing is guaranteed.

For now, there is a still moment of silence before the next round of interviews come-a-calling. I'm hoping that by then, I'll already have a job offer in hand. If not, the saga continues.

And, of course, in and amidst all this internship drama, I've actually got to focus on completing my personal learning objectives to ensure that I make an excellent intern next year.

All I can say is, I can't wait to finally have a job secured so that I can start focusing once more on what really matters, and that's getting the job done right.

Also, by the way, it'll be nice to finally get paid.