Euphoria

I'm in such a state of euphoria that I can't sleep. The Buddha said that we should not always have big fluctuation in mood, but I think I deserve this one.

I had to make a presentation for about 3 minutes during the Medsin Explained session yesterday. Medsin, as I've probably said it for 1000 times in the freshers fair, is the Medical Student Internation Network that looks after different projects and campaign internationally, nationally and locally. The After School Club which I am coordinating this year is one of the projects under Medsin and I had to make a presentation to recruit new volunteers for the club.

You have no idea how nervous I was before I went to speak. There were at least 100 people in the lecture theatre which can actually fit 200 people. My hands were so cold. I was almost shivering already while waiting for my turn to speak. I have never made any presentation in front of so many people (esp mat salleh) before. And I won't be given a microphone!

Then it was my turn. It was nerve wreaking for the first couple of seconds. My first words when I looked at the audience was 'This is overwhelming!'. Then everything went fine. Poeple laughed at my jokes. I even managed to come up with some spontaneous humour! At the end, I got a great applause, even some cheers from the audience (which no one else got). Everyone was just telling me that 'i think you were really good', and it was indeed fantastic to hear that. And at the end of the day, I managed to get a total of 60 people to sign up, that's triple the amount of volunteers that we had last year, which also means that we will be able to support an extra 40 Somali refugee children! All these while in the first year, I was just a passive volunteer. I have no idea that that it feels owesome to we get involved and actually make things happen ourselves.

The fact that I'm from Malaysia probably gave me a bit of advantage. I might even have inspired some international student to take on some more important roles in matsalleh dominated commitee such as this one. I told them that I would not be here talking had I not done this last year, which is partly true. I owe my current high level of confidence to all sorts of things, like PBL, the UMAP project, Heartstart, After School Club, Judo, Reache and the Medics in Primary School Scheme. Come to look at the list now, it was a bit too much that I did last year. But it didn't really affected my studies in anyway, unless you consider getting honours grade in all tests not good enough. In fact I think they do make me a better person. So, instead of wasting my life away shopping and sleeping, I've decided to carry on with my hectic schedule and do as much as I can for myself and others. As the Buddha said 'Don't be idle. A useful day full of intense effort is better than a hundred years of idleness and inactivity'.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Medsin commitee for their support. They are one of the most friendly people I have ever met. Also, I would to give a special thank to Yusmin. She is certainly the best Medsin Vice-president for projects I can ever ask for. She is full of confidence and passion, and she are ever so nice to me. She had been really patient with my lack of confidence to speak especially during the Freshers fair and I have just never seen her support fade. So thanks for that. And to the other project leaders - Hannah, Ruth, Jan, Carolyn etc, it's been really nice talking to all of you.

Just to add to the sense of euphoria of this blog entry, I have just been back from Reache, and a poster explaining what the PLAN session do in Reache has been selected as one of the top ten posters out of about 490 in a Medical Education conference in Italy. I feel happy because I had been one of the students Ben (a final year medical student who created the poster) interviewed for this poster, and the fact that I've contributed for the success of almost every PLAN session except for the summer holiday and the exam week. So, congratulations Pip, Mick, Ben and all student volunteers and members of Reache.