dust / innuendoes

i made a huge mistake yesterday - the kind where people go ‘THIS IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH!’.

okay so it wasn’t that serious, but considering i dispensed the wrong medicine to a kid < 1 year old, it really had the potential (though a low probability) of turning me from a part-time clinic assistant to a convict charged with the crime of negligence.

thank God I realised I made the mistake before much time lapsed, the parents didn’t kick up a big fuss and I have such a great boss! I would never ever mistake transparent ‘Ventolin’ for green ‘Vasican’ again, despite the latter being so much more attractive than the former. okay no excuses, it was a huge mistake.

…

Time really flies, I’ve been working at Aunty Dot’s clinic for a year now. I only work for 3 hours every saturday morning (minus exam periods), so I believe that the number of hours I’ve worked there is still less than half the hours I spent at NUH. But I’ve learnt so much! I help with the registration of new patients, process payment, weigh patients, take their temperatures, help Janice (Aunty Dot’s full time assistant) get medicine and paste the labels on it, sometimes i help the doc distract the children while she’s giving them jabs etc. The extra income is great, plus it’s fun (: Yesterday was the first time (and first weekday) I assisted the doctor alone, and it went very smoothly until I dispensed the wrong medicine and the NETS machine started to give problems. oh well.

It was also at clinic where I learnt that I shouldn’t ‘look down’ on any job because I think that I wouldn’t learn much from it. THAT’S NONSENSE. When I finished As, all I wanted was to work in an accounting firm because I figured that I’m going to be an accountant so might as well get all the relevant experience. But I’ve since learnt that EVERY KIND OF JOB EXPERIENCE IS RELEVANT! Granted, if you’re applying for some full-time jobs, certain job-specific experience is required. But since most of us at this age are interested in temporary jobs, really every job will teach you something. I see Janice (Aunty Dot’s full-time assistant) and I marvel at her efficiency, her ability to multi-task(!!) and how she deals with patients and their parents. It’s not as easy as it seems, really. When I’m at the clinic, sometimes I feel like I’m playing a game where you have many different things to do within a certain time limit, and you get points by how fast you attend to your customer’s needs and how happy they are with your service. haha it’s quite cool when you think about it this way (except that the game will never allow you to dispense wrong medicine to patients haha)

I was just talking to my Mum the other day about the different jobs I had, and that this holiday is the first time I’m looking for a job myself. (NUH, kindergarten, Victoria, Ahmad, Clinic - all of them were really easy to find!) And she said that I really had to thank God for all the opportunities given to me. I agree, honestly I’ve learnt so so much, met many different people and learnt to manage my own money. It feels good to spend what I earn instead of constantly asking my parents for money.

My two surviving jobs are Ahmad and the clinic job, and I’ve actually survived one year of uni life doing both! I remember feeling worried that I wouldn’t be able to manage before going to NTU. yet now, they’ve been so rooted into my schedule/life, sometimes I wonder when I’d have to say goodbye & how sad I’d be.