A place called home

I always go through this strange period of social disconnect whenever I return back to Singapore for the annual 2 month (cut down to 1 for long suffering post grad med students :p) long holiday we tertiary education students are privileged to have.

I do not feel it as much during the mid year break, because the trip back home is often a whirlwind visit, where meet ups are usually quick catch up sessions and conversations consist of things and events I have missed over the 5 odd months, these sessions are usually a one off thing, no time for repeat sessions during the short visit.

The long holiday however, is a different matter all together. There are repeat meet ups, more time for in depth discussions, more time to confide in each other and then I realise, I have missed out a lot on the personal growth of my friends, challenges they have faced throughout the year, and more importantly I feel a disconnect with issues faced by my own country and her countrymen.

In academia, there is little time for much else apart from studying and well, unwinding to keep one’s mind sound and sane, especially in the discipline of medicine. I feel like I have fallen far behind on world and home issues, and fallen behind on my friends’ lives. In a similar vein, life in medicine not something that everyone can understand easily unless one walks through the fires and experiences it first hand. So one I guess can say that I am socially out of sync.

I suppose I will always continue to feel this way, but I must remind myself that it is natural, and I thank people like Troy Chin for writing about this disconnect people like myself feel, in his series of comics, The Resident Tourist, because it let’s me know… that I am not alone.

It’s not all doom and gloom here in sideshowjo land, things will get better, at some point, as it always does

Happy New Year all!

December 30, 2009. The darkness within, Think, Thunk, Thought.