LIstening Project

There are a lot of articles saying we should find our talent and passion. The problem, I'm not sure what actually my talent is. I'm not an artist and I'm not good at sport either. However, I find out that since I was kid, I have always been talkative. I talked a lot and I still do. I also listen. I often listen to my friends talking about their problem without giving any advice.

My listening skill is quite good but I'm not good at hearing. Yes, listening is different from hearing. According to Oxford Learner's Pocket Dictionary, Fourth Edition, listen means pay attention to sb/sth that you can hear while hear means be aware of sounds with your ears. My teacher explained, "When you listen, you intend to do it before but when you hear, you may not intend to do it. Example: I heard the thunder while listening to the song. Can you see the difference? In that sentence, I had intended to listen to the music but I hadn't expected to hear the thunder." Back to the topic, I'm not so good at hearing to the point that my mother accused me of having hearing problem. She intends to take me to ENT clinic while in fact, I just sometimes focus too much on what I do that I can't hear her calling me. I once wrote in this blog that I was difficult to concentrate. Yes, I am but once I concentrate, I do it totally.

I guess I have talent for communication so I make a project which I call "Listening Project". Since I talk a lot, I think it's important to make more time for listening. In this project, I'm dedicating a week from Tuesday, April 29th to Monday, May 5th for listening to people. I'll just listen to them and respond if it's necessary then I take note of what they say and share some in this blog.

p.s. I'm sorry if I sound like bragging about my suspected talent. By the way, I still believe I have talent for communication in spite of my failure in communication OSCE.

Parents' Thought

Today I went home from campus by bus. I spent my time in the bus reading my lecture note. On the half of my journey, a woman and her little son sat beside me. The woman noticed my reading and asked if I was going to have exam. Soon she discovered that I was (I still am, by the way) a medical student.

She asked me how much it costed to enter medical school and how much I had to pay each semester. I told her how much and I also said that the cost rised every year. She also told me that she wanted her son to be a doctor and she had been saving money for that.

“We have no idea what Indonesia would be like in the future and what profession will be needed much in this country,” she said. “However, doctors are always needed. That’s why I want my son to be a doctor,” she continued.

During conversation, I mostly listened. So many things happened in my mind while listening. I saw how parents concerned a lot about their children’s future even before the children  thought about it. I said parents because I remembered my parents while that woman talked about her son. I also realised that doctor was still considered a profession with future certainty while in fact I’m sometimes still uncertain about my future as a doctor.

That conversation also reminded me how I had really wanted to be a doctor when I was in high school and how my mother had convinced me a lot of time to change my decision. My mother thought that medical school was not a “happy place” and now I’m a medical student, I find out that medical school can be both happy and sad place at the same time. However, as my mother said, “It is your choice. Now study.”

It’s still a long journey ahead for me to be a doctor and a long time ahead for that woman’s son to make decision. I wish them a good present and future.