March Favorites

I'm going to start a segment on my blog called "Favorites," where I'll just list down all my favorite things at the moment. It's not exactly a new segment; I've been doing it since the beginning of this blog, but this will be the first time I'm ever giving it a name.

So, for my Favorite #1, here's a little insight into my favorite rotation: Psychiatry.

For quite some time, whenever I'd get asked what specialty I wanted to take up after graduating from med school, I'd answer nothing (i.e. no specialization, just a general practitioner; I didn't just silently stare at them for a full minute and say nothing). For context, to take up a "specialty" often means you have to go through 3 to 5 more years of rigorous training, in addition to the 5 years of medical school you've already taken up. Going into training is like being a hospital slave: You don't control your hours, you get paid next to nothing, and you have to do whatever you're told to. For these reasons, I found residency extremely unappealing.

Lately though, I'm starting to reconsider my options. I'm currently rotating in Psychiatry, spending my days and nights in the Psychiatric ward in [hospital name redacted]. I am loving it here.

The work is never boring. All of the patients I meet are living rich, complex lives, and despite my normally short attention span, I get a thrill from listening to their interviews and reading their back-stories. As an intern, I'm also in charge of taking notes from their interviews and typing them down into their databases. I truly love doing this work. I love putting together the details about them, weaving their many stories into a single cohesive narrative. 

I get to be creative. I'm always wondering, how can this detail about this person's life affect the way he's living now? This person was born the eldest in a brood of 4, and feels that she is responsible for taking care of her siblings; could this contribute to her current state of anxiety over being hospitalized? You know, those sorts of things are always running through my mind. 

I feel relatively more normal. As a Psych intern, I meet all sorts of colorful characters during my daily rounds with the residents. I listen to all their quirks and obsessions, their darkest thoughts and their happiest ones. Sometimes, I end up seeing my own struggles and anxieties reflected in another patient's, and it puts me a little more at ease to know that I'm not the only one who has those struggles. 

So there we have it for Favorite #1: Psychiatry. At this point I'm about 60 to 70 percent sure I'm going to end up in a Psych residency (if I'm lucky enough to be accepted into one). My ultimate goal would be to make mental health services more accessible to low-income communities. Please hope for the best for me. 

Now for just a quick run-down through my other 4 favorites this month:

2. Favorite day: Non-duty Sundays (like today). I woke up at 8 this morning, raring to go out and spend a quiet productive day alone. I made myself some Milo coffee (arguably the best way to have coffee), ate brunch at Ca Va in Podium, and then walked to Robinsons Galleria to pick up some school supplies. 

No-shame selfie at Ca Va. It's such a refreshing place to be - I really could've stayed there for hours on end but I had to go to the bathroom and I was too shy to ask the waiters to watch over my stuff. (I actually googled whether it was okay to do that. Answer: it usually is not.) 

 3. Favorite podcast: Hello from the Magic Tavern. This comedy podcast is about a guy named Arnie who one day accidentally falls down an interdimensional portal behind a Burger King and into the magical land of Foon. Each episode is improvised, there's no script, and it's absolutely hilarious. Few things make me genuinely laugh out loud, and this podcast is one of them. 11/10 stars, highly recommended. BUT you really need to listen to the episodes in chronological order or else the story won't make much sense. (I started last week and I'm already on Episode 50.) Check them out below:

4. Favorite restaurant: Habaneros Kitchen Bar, Cubao Expo. Last night my sister introduced me to this unassuming little hole-in-the-wall in Cubao. Their lechon was AMAZING. Melt-in-your-mouth. As a bonus, I got to wander around Cubao Ex again and reminisce on my old college days. Sadly I didn't take any pictures.

5. Favorite small item: This thing. It's an old keychain I found while Marie Kondo-ing my condo, and I thought it would look great on my plain ol' backpack.