We had our hospital-wide residency and fellowship graduation this morning. Once again, as in the ten other graduations we’ve attended in our lifetimes, inspirational speakers uttered the phrase “this is not the end but merely the beginning”. And don’t we feel the endless cyclical beginnings. Sometimes I just want to hear “THIS is THE END! The REAL one. Congratulations!”

A few months ago during our mid-year convention, and again two nights ago during our holiday gathering with our  internal medicine residency batchmates, we’ve been fascinated at the wonderful stories of JD-Lu, Lloydie, Popopopokerface Popopokerface, Aids, and Djana as practicing general Internists. Two years ago they have wisely and courageously decided not to pursue hellowship and instead jump in to the real world. We have marvelled at their stories, and hoped to one day graduate so we could practice like they do. And then these things come up in the multi-thread conversations.

“Dapat pala during training nag-file kayo ng no income and then file the withholding tax forms you got for your stipends or else you would pay P12,000.”

“Lalakarin mo dapat yung Philhealth, pay P14,000, then yung PMA kung hindi ka nakabayad before, around P12,000. Required din pala ang ACLS certificate, diplomate and fellowship certificates, etc certificates.”

“Okay naman yung stocks dun sa isang hospital, P450,000 lang.”

“Sa mga babayaran mo pa lang wala ka nang kikitain.”

“Hire an accountant.”

“Requirement din pala ito. Ito rin required. Lalakarin mo ito, tapos pupunta ka dito, required din yan, magbabayad ka nito. Fill up FORMS CT3, CT4, XFT, XFT-1, XFT-2, etc. Repeat 10x.”

At which point our collective hellows’ brains shut down.

“We take it back. Ayaw pala naming grumaduate! Ayaw namin! Ayaw namin grumaduate! We take it back! We take it baaaaaaack!!!!”

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