Counting Down as the Pace Gathers...

Dear Diary,

Just uploaded photos and a video onto my Facebook account, haha… I must admit that Facebook can be a real fun to use. This is the first time I am loading a video of myself online! Guess who I am in there! ;-) Nonetheless, it was indeed an evening to remember. =) Next Friday will be the last day I am working before I become “unemployed” for a few days, haha…

Today was just a normal Sunday which I attended church in the morning. Later in the afternoon, helped mum and dad to carry goods which they bought at the supermarket, haha… It felt good to just have a simple relaxing program-less day. Last night, the student attached to me was asking me to join her for trekking today, because her own preceptor asked her along! ;-) Apparently, a suitor of her preceptor had invited her preceptor to go trekking this morning. So her preceptor roped her in and she wanted me to accompany her! Haha… I told the student… Hey! Sure you wanna go play the gooseberry there? Since I did not want to join them, the student decided not to, and her preceptor declined the guy. See… I am important, okay? Hahahaha… ;-P

A flashback… On Thursday, two students (a male and a female) arrived at my pharmacy at Parkway Parade. Apparently, according to their preceptors… they are first-class honours students. I was like… huh? Out of the 6 students attached to me this year, 50% of them are first class honours students! Last year, only 1 out of the 4 students attached to me was a first class honours one. Sometimes, I really wonder what’s the world up to these days. I vaguely remember that during my “era”, we had barely two students consistently in the first-class honours “spectrum”. Only a late surge of good grades got another two more on board by graduation I think. Not a single guy in my class had first-class honours. Then again, should I be surprised? With 2 A’s in the A-level exams at my time, you will get a medical school interview. In their era, you can get 4 A’s and you may not even qualify for pharmacy school! Our eras are just only 5 years apart by the way, haha…

Anyway… both of them were impressive nonetheless. I thought we had a pretty good discussion and learning session as the ice between us broke down by early afternoon, haha… they stayed back an additional hour to learn more. Good students! ;-) The guy is having similar ambitions as me and I shared quite a lot of my academic pursuit with him. I wish him all the best in eventually striving for an academic ambition that I once tried and ultimately failed. I am sure he can do better than me.

On Friday, I only had the female student with me. Unlike the guy, she had asked to be attached to me for a 3-day stint. She was supposed to my student if I did not resign anyway and I must say that she was loads of fun to have around. One thing for sure is that she lived up to her “enthu” reputation which I gave her. I could be counselling a patient or a customer and she would just stand beside the customer, listening intently. Haha… sometimes she even added additional lifestyle modification advice for the patients which admittedly I have so often omitted. I tried to equip her as much knowledge as possible in those 3 days and explained to her how to observe people and tailor questions to reach a diagnosis. I guess it ultimately comes with some experience to notice the non-verbalised decision-making process in action over what would seem like a simple interaction. =) I was pleasantly surprised that I somehow even got to talk to her about how I came to know Christ as a 14-year-old boy! She seemed receptive and hopefully at some point in her life, she will come to know Christ Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. Wanted to treat her lunch at the “Specky Casual Dining” but the Western food and pasta stall wasn’t open. I also lost my last chance to eat from there. Sigh… oh well…

An ex- college classmate of mine dropped by at my pharmacy to buy some stuff that evening. He later took the same bus home as me to chat. Somehow, he seemed troubled by his new job in the government sector. “The workload is incredibly heavy,” he complained. Later that evening, he called me up on the phone and we chatted for 3 hours from 11.30pm to 2.30pm till basically my cordless phone battery went dead. Nice catching up with him and thank God for a headphone. I really don’t know how people can press the phone against their ears for 3 hours without breaking their arms or flattening their ears. I use a headphone connected to a cordless handset. So it was like listening to a walkman for 3 hours, haha… I had insufficient sleep that night.

On Saturday, I practically sat at the corner of the dispensary counter and observed the student did dispensing, intervening only when absolutely necessary. Went through the intensive training with her as best as I could but still I did not manage to cover some stuff that I wanted to cover with her. Got to eat Subway for lunch at last after such a long while, haha… realised that not many people like Subway. At least, this student likes! ;-) Bought her lunch since she was thoughtful enough to get me a honey lemon drink for my worsening sore throat. That day marked the last day I would ever mentor any NUS pharmacy student. All the best to her!

All the best to the pharmacy practice world, the community outreach, the pharmacotherapy, the interaction with future pharmacists and students… The final bow is now just less than a week away. The long 2-month notice doesn’t seem too long after all as the time gathers pace for that final lap.

God Bless,

Andrew