Tsubibo

      As I type this, a million S. aureus are probably finding their way to my bed (where I am currently lying) from my uniform (which I wore to the lab because I forgot to bring scrubs). Whatever. I'll just overdose myself with Vitamin C later and hope the bacteria leave me alone. Right now I just really need to clear my mind.

    Something big just happened. An article I co-wrote with my friends Zaldy and Mina just got published on Rappler!

     Well okay, to be more precise, it got published on the community-sourced Move.PH section of Rappler. But still! I've always wanted to publish an article (outside the school paper) and now that day has come! This is a dream come true for me and I'm lucky to be sharing the happiness with Mina, Zaldy, and the rest of Batch 2019.

    The article is about Mga Kwentong Tsubibo, a full-length film produced my by batch in ASMPH. It's actually kind of weird that this is the first time I'm mentioning it in my blog, considering we started production about eight months ago. That's almost as weird as the concept of a bunch of med students making a film.  

    But the idea wasn't so weird from the beginning. For me and my batchmates, our first year in medicine had been filled with a whole battery of projects that were heavy on creativity. From research writing to posters to musicals (The Sound of TB Meningitis) to short films (Splanchnic) to sabayang pagbigkas (about potassium movement in the renal tubules) to children's shows (featuring a colorectal exam) to a legit commercial (watch your sodium intake, folks), there were so many weird and wonderful and unnecessarily elaborate displays of talent in the batch.

     So LA (ang dakilang director ng batch) came up with the idea to use all of our talents to do something good: make a movie for the benefit of a community and raise awareness for public health.

     In March 2015, Batch 2019 agreed to the project, and everybody, all 160++ of us, had a part to play. The musicians were put in charge of the film's score. The writers were relegated to the script team. The business-savvy banded together to organize the screening. And the public health advocates went looking for a community whom we could partner with. Fund raisers were organized. We sold old clothes, baked cookies, begged from our friends, family, and many good doctors. 

     Eight months later, that vision is now a reality. And that reality, just today, was publicized to the whole NATION on a very famous news site. HOLY MOLY.

     I never realized the implications of getting published on such a popular platform. That means anybody can read it. And anybody can HATE on it. And, unsurprisingly, a small (but significant) percentage of people have been doing just that.

A screenshot of Rappler's "mood meter" on the article, taken at about 5 PM today.

      Rappler has this feature called the Mood Meter beside all their articles, where anyone can click on an emotion to show how they're feeling about the story. The Tsubibo article came out around 12 PM. At 2 PM, there were 75% "Inspired," and 5% "Angry." This caused a panic during microbiology lab (during which I wore just my uniform, hence the S. aureus now colonizing my bed). When lab was over at 4, the "Angry" had grown to an alarming 17%. 

      Dia was trying to get people (well, LA in particular) to chill out, but I was getting worried myself. What was wrong? Was it something I said? Why are there so many haters? Why did I leave my scrubs? 

     Sigh. I dunno. The 74% of "Inspired" people though is a really good sign, and it's so amazing to see how so many non-ASMPH people are coming out to support the film. 

     I don't want to be constantly monitoring the hater levels on this article for the rest of the night. I have bigger fish to fry, and eleven handouts to read. Today was great. Now, if only I could find my Vitamin C...