Ode to All Female Medical Students Out There

Killing time while waiting for our OSCE at 5:00 PM, I spent most of the afternoon hanging out wih a few of my female classmates, talking about things under the sun, most especially about love, romance and our frustrations with the opposite sex. Don't get me wrong. We aren't, as Noy would put it, being "desperate", but just because we're medical students, it doesn't mean we don't think about being inlove too. After all, we are just like any other normal girl and we too have our own frustrations with the opposite sex.

Year 2005 is said to be a bad year for relationships, and most especially for us, female medical students. One by one, we have walked out of the relationships that we have grown and nurtured for the past few years; some by choice, others forced to, some unlucky ones just dumped. We have been cheated to, lied to, not trusted, made to feel insecure and inadequate, used as human ATMs or as a front to prove their own manhood, by the same guys that we have wasted precious sleep and study time on. The same guys that we have loved with all our hearts, in the pretense that they loved us, if not more, at least just as much as we did them, have become nothing to us but major disappointments.

Thus, most of us are now single.

Being a female medical student is both a boon and a bane. We are said to be one of the smartest minds, the noble ones, who are bound to have successful careers and a good future ahead of us. Yet given the backward mind of an Average Filipino male, none of these qualities make us more atractive to the opposite sex. Despite the arrival of the Feminist era, where women are now equally empowered as men, most guys are still intimidated by women who are smarter, stronger and who would earn more than them. As a result, we, female medical students are forced to go for guys who are of the same profession - which as we all know, gives us, very slim pickings because almost half of the good doctors that we admire are GAY or frustratingly, EFFEMINATE - or guys who are sure to earn more than us, such as lawyers, business owners or politicians, for example. Unfortunately, given our hectic schedules, we have no time to be active in the dating game, and especialy not with someone who is outside our own circle.

In the end, we are left with the following choices:

1. Mama's boys
2. Geeks who look like William Hung
3. Criminals, perverts, and those with personality disorders
4. One or two good guys who will choose to date someone younger, sexier, and less intimidating, like 15-year-old girls or kolehiyalas taking up BS Nursing, for example.
5. One or two good guys who will be snatched up, right under our own noses, by the clever ones from the third sex... Joseph, can you please leave the good guys to us? People like you are totally adding to the competition! Just kidding, Seph! You have every right to go for guys as well!

Given the bleak future of our lovelife, we fear that we are bound to become like one of the many unmarried female medical doctors in Zamboanga City, like Drs. N. Ong, L. Tan, M. Gonzales. Beautiful, successful but forever single. We fear that in a few years we will be the ones conducting the OSCE, labelled "Terror Doctors" by the younger generation of ZMSFI students, because we have become shrews from the lack of our own families to take care of. We fear that if we remain boyfriend-less at the age of 40, we might be forced to ask our close male friends to get us pregnant just so we may experience the joys of motherhood, despite the lack of a husband. We fear that in the end, we are bound to die VIRGINS... So, help us god...

Of course, I wouln't have started feeling this way if I haven't been talking to my good friend, Jane Doe, who's experiencing a lot of frustrations herself with her own long-distance medical student boyfriend. Prior to this day, being an amateur at being single, I used to think it was SOOO great to be unattached and that boyfriends can be such a hassle. But because of the frustrations that have cropped up from today's conversations, these best-kept thoughts have jumped full-force, as if alive and kicking, forcing to be heard. Because of these thoughts, I am reluctanly made to turn my back against the happy coccoon I used to think I live in and I am now made to face the emptiness of my own current lovelife. This is all your fault, Janet... I only wish that these thoughts don't last and that by tomorow, I will return to my own happy-to-be-single carefree self. Just as my horoscope for today has said:

Your romantic glass may abruptly seem half-empty, but just wait a few minutes and it'll look half-full again. Look for a deeper understanding, or else you'll keep flip-flopping about it all day.

Therefore, the moral of the story is, don't spend a lot of time with JaneDoe. Hehehe... Just kidding, Jane. We're still friends. Peace!