The Communion of Pharmacists

Dear Diary,

Chinese New Year is round the corner and I am getting a little excited over the prospects of meeting up with some cousins and relatives! Like what my parents pointed out so correctly; the years seem to fly past! Just on Friday (1 Feb), two pharmacy students approached my counter. I did not really notice them as there were a couple of customers. After “dealing” with the customers, I saw them and they kinda smiled sheepishly. I audibly read out the words on their polo shirts… “NUS Pharmaceutical Society!” I thought they were amused with my expression after I came to terms with that phrase, haha… It is a term very familiar to me, doesn’t feel too long ago but yet… no matter how I deny… it is more than 2 years ago when I last identified with it!!!! Sobs…. Time flies.

They produced a folder with many photos and briefed me on the upcoming Rag Day in 2008. Apparently, the pharmacy department in NUS have started making their own floats since 2006! We used to do it together with the rest of the Science faculty. While they were flipping the pages, I remarked… “Surely it must be about donations, isn’t it girls?” Haha… Well, they tried to maintain their “professionalism” by continuing with the presentation and not just replying, “Yes, yes… we are here for the money!” Hahahaha… Then again, there is this feeling of being connected to them although they, I suspect, are from the Pharmacy Class of 2011. I am from a class 6 years earlier!

Took out a $10 note but they persuaded me that I could get a very nice gift if I gave more than that… I squinted at them… hmmm… “It’s ok, I will just not embarrass the guy just above me on that card!” They hopped around “protesting” that the first and only donor recorded on that card is her dad and it is okay to give more! “Well, then I better respect him! Haha…” I replied teasingly.

Asked them a little about the pharmacy department and they, in turn, asked me how I like my job. That question momentarily stunned me but I recovered my composure and said, “It is an good job for a couple of years!” They laughed. Thanked me and one even bought a tube of triamcinolone paste for her oral ulcers. Gave her a discount.

There is something about the pharmacy profession which I like. There is that camaraderie that stretches beyond the ages. I could sit down with a fellow pharmacist whose son is older than me by 10 years, and yet still can talk with that light-hearted friendship! Maybe this profession is compact because of our universal “suffrage” on the absence of sole dispensing rights and lack of the recognition of the profession at large? Hee hee… I don’t know!

Yet as much as I cherish the profession and the people in it, I really don’t know if I have a future in it. I do, however, have absolute confidence that with the kind of students NUS is producing… the profession is set for more substantial advancement in the near future though the going may get tough! That’s all for tonight! Take care!

God Bless,

Andrew