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YOURS TRULY!!!
And guess who also found a weekend job to feed her ever-shrinking savings account???
Me, me, me!
By golly I sound like an obnoxious narcissist right now, but the adrenaline in my blood has yet to reach my liver, so grant me some more time to squeal over these two pieces of good news.
Just a week ago my elder sister told me that a neighbour of ours had requested to engage her tutoring services for secondary-level subjects, apparently after hearing my grandmother brag about our promising academic achievements (ah, grandmothers - always the one to go to for a morale boost!) ... However, she declined because she preferred working with younger children, and instead referred myself to the neighbour! I was taken aback, because while I was actively searching for tutoring jobs online, I had not expected a job to suddenly fly up onto my desk... On the other hand I was also really pleased that the neighbour was willing to hire me as a tutor, even though we had neither met nor contacted each other before. So I gave her a call to discuss the details, and now I am scheduled to start our first lesson this coming Monday evening! The pay is confidential so please don't ask me to divulge it.
P.S. If you are interested to know my rates however - not that I am looking for more tutees - do drop me a question on Ask.fm and I will give you an updated quote! :)
The news of the clinic internship came much later - just yesterday in fact - but is so much more exciting in comparison to the prospect of a new part time job, which is why I mentioned it first and foremost in this post. I am SO ELATED!!!
Some might be wondering why I am so happy to clinch a clinic internship. Let me tell you why:
(1): I have emailed hospitals to no avail
Early 2014 I had sent an email to a general hospital inquiring about their volunteer programme that would allow me to interact with geriatric patients, but for the entire 14 months that I have passively and patiently waited, I have never seen a trace of their reply to me. What had discouraged me the most was the fact that I was ignored even though I had requested to volunteer at the hospital - I had not even asked to participate in a paid internship! My voluntary 'free labour' went unacknowledged and I had doubts about contacting other hospitals since then (note I didn't fill in the form uploaded online but instead sent an email because I had to settle other details for my CAS such as an indicated supervisor) ... While some may say that I am giving up too easily after facing rejection, please continue to read on first.
(2): I figured that a neighbourhood clinic experience would benefit me the most
After facing 'rejection' from the hospital, I thought of ways to allow myself to gain an insightful experience into the medical world, such as volunteering at nursing homes and hospices. I did my research, and visited some of the places myself too, to check out the potential job scope that I could take. After serious reflection, I however decided that the best arrangement was to shadow a doctor in a neighbourhood clinic, mainly because of the nature of medical knowledge I can gain from the experience. In nursing homes, trained nurses are employed to help the patients, and socialising with the patients is almost imposssible because of the various illnesses that affect them. Some may be mute, some may be mentally-ill and some just don't speak the languages I speak. This sets up a barrier that I am unable to overcome because on one end I am unable to speak to these patients to understand their symptoms and stories, and on the other, I would never really be allowed to help the patients in any way because of the liability issues if something went wrong. The most I would be able to do in a nursing home/hospice would be to entertain the patients through singing, and while it does seem like a very lovely thing to do, I must steer away from other agendas if I want to seek an enriching experience that would allow me to learn something useful in the medical realm of knowledge. For the sake of mentioning it, Ms Rao (my tutor) and I are currently planning a monthly visit to Cheshire Home where the Karaoke Club students can sing songs to entertain the residents there - so please don't accuse me of not having compassion whatsoever. On an individual basis I will also be volunteering there to get to know the residents better so the service does not seem like a superficial 'touch-and-go' activity which, to be brutally honest, local school CIP systems are very guilty of. It is always important to build a rapport with your beneficiaries so as to fully experience the joy of giving and service!
Anyway, I digress.
I figured towards the end that sitting in with a doctor in a neighbourhood clinic would allow me to witness a wide variety of common-day maladies ranging from the viral flu to even chickenpox, and to see this occurring to people from different walks of life will certainly be an enriching experience for me. One of the reasons I am inclined to learn Medicine is so that I may alleviate the symptoms of bothersome illnesses should any of my relatives/friends be afflicted with them, so to learn about the common illnesses would be to prepare smartly for such a day.
(3): I don't have any 'contacts'
This is in close relation to (1), but in this particular case, I was unable to find an internship previously because of my lack of relation to people from the medical field! While I do know a friend or two with a doctor parent, most of the time he/she is a specialist which makes learning very difficult because he/she is used to functioning at god speed when diagnosing disease and gosh, nothing can be deciphered from the consequent scribble of words! Not to mention the extensive jargon that will be used...
Anyway, while there are clinics out there that do accept interns, they do not actively advertise this so finding such clinics will depend heavily on my luck....
And depend on my luck I did :) Just yesterday I was lamenting to Katelyn about how I was unable to find an internship opportunity when she mentioned a family friend who had a clinic near where I live, and suggested that I approach her for an internship. When I heard of that, my eyes must have had literally lit up! She did the talking for me though, and I am supposed to contact the doctor this weekend to discuss the details for my summer internship!
A thousand thanks to dearest Katelyn!!
At times I feel so useless for being unable to help my friends as much as they help me. If only there was some way I could be of assistance!
Managing to get an internship is seriously one of the happiest things that happened this year, and I am looking forward to learning about Ibuprofen, Blood Pressure, Flatulence, and whatever comes my way during my one-week internship at the clinic! I will disclose the details once I am done with the internship, and if the doctor is comfortable with me sharing the experience in more intimate detail :) Meanwhile for those looking for internships, press on! The search is hard, so look out for friends with doctor relations!
I am so happy that I have created a new label 'Positive Vibes' to be used whenever I have good news to share :D
I swear, when I become a doctor I will paste a LARGE poster on the glass pane stating that student interns are very much welcome to join in. Students like ME will be so happy and bounce my way into the clinic to request for a sign-up sheet! For me this will mean a stranger sitting by my side most of the days, but I am willing to sacrifice this for the sake of education. Just as long as I choose the right applicant to shadow me in my clinic in the future, he/she might just grow up to be my colleague, which is exactly what I hope to happen in my case. Ah, the future! Funny how I can sit on the bed and day-dream for hours :)
Alright! This is not the end of my school week - there is still Friday left to conquer! I shall need to turn in for the night, so that I may rest and prepare myself for HL Math during last period tomorrow (-_-") and I'm not even sure why I'm making this face! I actually really like statistics........ but the feeling is not mutual :'(
No more gibbering! Off to bed!
xoxo
Valerie
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