NUS-Clementi SCS-SMP

SMP stands for student mentorship programme, a so-called CIP work that I do for NUS out of school in Tanglin Secondary School. My job is actually to mentor a Sec 1 student, who faces some financial and family problems, through to next Jul with regards to his family, school, work and play. Yeah, kinda like playing a big brother to a stranger in his adolescence. Well, it's a little culture shock at 1st to find out there are such weak yet playful students around who sometimes have a little psychiatric problem. Luckily, my mentee, Alif, is a nice quiet Malay boy who does not give that much trouble. He loves the saxaphone, plays for school band and enjoys his soccer. Nice chap huh? Some people said I'm crazy to be in Medicine and yet wasting my time to do unnecessary CIP when it could have been used for books. But hey, Medicine is not all about studying rite, a fact that I've been inculcating in myself since year 1? There must be something more worthwhile to doing medicine than to study and I feel this is part of the compassionate and more psychological and emotional aspects to medicine. Who on earth can teach you how to deal with teens? Medicine? Nah, it's a life skill that has to be nurtured through real-life and practical situations like this. No wonder bookworm doctors nowadays are unable to cope with patients' demands, because patients are unlike what texbooks write of them!! Good doctors are not praised for their knowledge that much, but more for their ability to interact with their patients, to make their patients feel at ease yet being able to treat them effectively. Just like Patch Adams, my idol doc! Am I right or wrong? It's all up to you to decide. But for now, these kids give me joy whenever I see a smile on their faces, knowing that I had make a difference to their lives.