2008 2009 2010 2011
Today marked the second anniversary of me being a pharmacist in Malaysia.
That means I had already fulfilled one third of my contract with the government of Malaysia. At this rate, six years will be way faster than I imagined.
Two years down the road from the day I first stepped into the unknown landscape called pharmacy in Malaysia, I am now writing this in my wooden abode 500km from home, with the police sirens blaring outside as the luxurious convoy carrying the Chief Minister of the most current government sped through just 20 metres away.
You may ask, did it ever crossed my wildest imagination, that I will one day find myself in the current situation? Had I ever imagined when I first stepped into the hustle and bustle of Sarawak General Hospital two years ago as a greenhorn that I will now be in the middle of the Melanau heartland, holding the dubious post of Chief Pharmacist in a district hospital? The answer is “No”, partly because, as Mother told Sarah in the kindie song “whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see..”
Nonetheless, the short span of two years had been an amazing experience, where I find myself evolving from a pharmacist carrying out the exalted duty of hands on patient care to a pharmacist whose main responsibility is to carve out programmes and policies to better serve a rural community.
My aspirations can be as fickle as the wind. After the end of my first year, I aspired to be a clinical pharmacist with a well-stocked ammunition of complicated drug know-hows . After the end of my second year, it becomes being a managing pharmacist with a well conceptualised plan to transform a backwater pharmacy to be world class.
It is scary how situations and experience can easily change you.
Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” had been an oft quoted poem. Two years ago, I held to my blind faith that there exists greater hope in Malaysia then Australia by returning home. No kompangs or heroes welcome was evident as I forged through this less taken road. But I have no regrets. I love what I had been doing so far.
Back to the Chief Minister. He is here today because coincidently, today also marked the first time I am eligible to vote as a Malaysian citizen; and he is the candidate here. But this privilege I had decided to forfeit, for after deep consideration and deliberation, I found myself unable to choose. As I foray closer to the next diverging junction of my career, I fervently hoped that when the time comes, I will know which way to go.
