"My hobby is to become a doctor"

Mansi was visiting her grand-uncle in the private ward when she decided to popped her head in front of me and watched me complete some documentation. I smiled at her and continued my work as I was running out of time to complete the many things unaccomplished. She was watching me for some 10 minutes and finally decided to talk to me.

"What's your name?"

"3R1N, and yours?"

"Mansi."

"Are you from China?"
*laugh*
"Err, my grandparents were."

"Who are you visiting?"
"My...erm...grandmother's...erm....brother."
Perhaps that's too complicated for her to relate. 

"So do you want to become a doctor?"

She nodded eagerly with a big smile.

"Is that why you are so interested in what I am doing right now?"
"Yeah! My hobby is to become a doctor." *Full of confidence*

WOW!!!!!
"You mean, your ambition?"

She blushed. Oops.

"How old are you?"
"I'm 12years old. I go to i-cant-remember-what-she-said School."

"Can you read what I'm writing?"
"No. But you write very fast."
"Hmmm, well, I have to."
"Does your hand hurt writing so fast?"
"Not really. I'm used to it."

"So what doctor do you want to be next time?"

Since she is so ambitious and confident, I thought she might already have a speciality in mind.

"I want to be like you."

*pause* "HAHAHAHAHAHA!* 

Seriously, I just got to know her, or rather, we just spoke for 5 minutes, and I wasn't even attending to a patient, I was doing paperwork. Which part of that impressed her? I am just an intern. I am not one of those consultants who walked with aura and a flock of postgraduates,house surgeons, nurses and students scrambling behind him.

For a kid like her to be inspired to become a doctor, I pictured a scene like this.

A doctor swings his stethoscope around his neck, rushes in behind the curtains, performs CPR frantically, shouts "CLEAR" and then pushes a pair of iron-like-thingy into the patient's chest and made the almost lifeless fella bounce 2 feet high, and finally the flat line on the monitor shows some spikes.

This was what we used to see in the Hong Kong soap operas before House MD and Grey's Anatomy era.

"So, do you know that besides this ward, there are other wards on the other side of the hospital, which is the free ward, where the poor patients are admitted because they can't afford the medications and surgeries?"

"Yes."

"So, next time when you become a doctor, will you attend to them? The free ward is not beautiful like this one is. It is very crowded and pretty uncomfortable to be at. They are not educated like us. But they are ill too. Will you treat them like treating everyone else."

"Yes." No hesitation at all.

She's a sweet girl. I hope when she grows up and successfully becomes what she wants to be, she will not forget what she said.

I enjoyed chatting with her. I asked if she will come again tomorrow and at what time. She ran off into the room and came out as I was leaving to tell me that she will be here around 5 to 5.30pm. She was still walking with me all the way down the corridor until I exit the door. But I told her I may or may not be here at that particular time. She says ok. 

I wanted to exchange emails with her. Unfortunately she doesn't have one. She only has her father's.

She made my day. Not because she wants to "be like me", but talking to her lighten up my mood.

Immediately after I left the private ward and went to the free ward, I had a bad time with my blur, bossy, annoying, problematic superior. It really irritates me when someone gives you instructions when she herself is confused about what she wants to do. I tried so hard not to explode and kept reminding myself to not let this ruin my happiness. Sniffed back the escaping aqueous, I finished my work and called it a day.