It is said that friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. Well, everybody must have friends don’t they? One is in great affliction if one thinks that one can live on his own. Most of us medical students are studying abroad or quite far from our family. Some of us even went as far as crossing continents and studying in Europe or the Middle East. One cannot help to stop and pause to argue that the next closest to us after our family would be our friends. Friends or some call it as pal, buddy, comrade and mate are literally defined as those who are close to us, share the same likings as us and willing to accept us for who we are.
The purpose of this article is to argue and emphasize the idea of friends as a great social system or even as a support system. Friendship during medical school could last longer than just the day of our convocation or the day we part from each other.
Friendship conceives itself the day that we first say hi and gave the unconditional smile to each other. The day we first put in our hearts that we are going to sail through this medical boon and bane together. I wish to put forward a few points on how friendship affects your life in medical school and how it is going to affect the kind of doctor you are going to be, God willing one day.
- Friendship helps us to be more open to sharing and caring towards each other. Friendship helps to make people become more altruistic towards each other and we really need this during medical school and later in our life as doctors, (e.g. sharing notes, common examination questions and learning aids.)
- Friendship helps us diversify our knowledge. Knowledge is a critical component of creating an excellent doctor. Every medical student knows that they cannot master everything on their own, the vast topic, the small details, from the smallest histological slides to the largest cadaver specimen; one knows that one needs a friend to hold their hand and walk together in this journey.
- Friendship keeps us motivated. Medical school can be really stressful and arduous at times. Some of us might even become a cry-baby once they enter medical school. The environment can be really intense especially when it is examination season. To curb the emotional feeling, we can go out and hang out with our friends (e.g. take a relaxing stroll by the lakeside, go shopping, have a ping pong match or go to the movies, and for these we need friends to go with).
- Friendship helps to keep us on the right track. Some of us might lose their way in medical school; they get involved in other exhilarating activities like playing video games or watching too much TV. A true friend will surely remind their friend of the purpose of studying medicine, in case they forget.
- Friendship aids us to become a more humane doctor. Medical students are also human beings, they have problems and inadequacies. This can be overcome by having sincere friends who are there to listen to their problem and give the right advice. Be there when you are needed. Be understanding and support each other (i.e; go to their music performance, celebrate their birthdays, and wishing all the best for exams). Surprisingly, these small things actually matters.
I remember my lecturer once told me, “Medicine is not a one man job, if you think you can do it alone, you are in deep trouble.” It is always best to try to practise the right attitude with your friends, your colleagues and other people around you. At the end of the day, we all are in this to create a better world, for us and for our future generations.
Before I finish, I would like to quote Lao Tzu, he said “The wise man does not lay up treasure. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own”. In the spirit of sharing of caring, I wish to whisper heartily to my fellow comrades and medical students out there, success is not sweet if it was tasted alone. If you have questions, notes or study tips up your sleeves that have not been shared with others, share it now. Always be the friend you want to have, if you want to have a loving friend, be warm. If you want to have a selfless friend, do not be selfish. Be in the company of those who can lift you higher, a friend who studies with you, not just watch movies with you. A friend, who accepts you, accepts your shortcomings and accepts your changes and transformations throughout med school. Like Chucky said, I’m your friend till the end.
Maryam Zakiah is a 3rd year medical student at USM KLE International Medical Programme, Belgaum, India. Learn more about the young columnists under The Team tab.
Good article. I totally agreed with the author. I myself studied in Bangalore, India for 7 yrs to get my MBBS including pre university.
I survive my study in Bangalore with the help of friends. Away from family with meager scholarship allowance from JPA (in my time, the scholarship money only enough to half of the monthly expenditure) time are hard. Only with the help and support of friends, I managed to graduate and now as a consultant surgeon. The friends I made during my studies will be cherished forever!!
Greetings Dr Lam. Thank you. Indeed, I heard from a surgeon, in the good old days,student did not have the copious amount of scholarship like we had today,and yet they survived. Friends is the next best social support after family during this tough days. God willing, I hope I can cherish all the friends I made along the way until the end. Thank you again Dr Lam!