Human

When I started med school, one of the upperclassmen told some of us first years that med school demands so much that every year you lose a part of what makes you human.

A high school teacher of mine lost his two-year-old daughter. The little girl was born with biliary atresia and had been in and out of the hospital for complication after complication. When I heard that she died, I cried. I just thought it was so unfair--for my teacher and his family to have gone through so much but have gotten only two years for their daughter in return.

Tonight I was with a couple of the older members of our org in med. Some of them were already licensed physicians. Upon hearing about my high school teacher's daughter's condition, the internist among us asked, "Ilang taon na ba siya?" I answered, "Two."

I didn't hear his reply very well, but I think I knew what I heard. This was a perfectly ordinary, nice guy who looked, talked and acted like a decent human being looks like, talks and acts. I could've sworn he said, "Okay na 'yon."