The path to finally getting that coveted ‘Dr’ title, though, I know will not be an easy one. I love medicine, I honestly and truly do. But sometimes I hate how much the studies demand of me. I have stacks of textbooks that are always awaiting my attention, even as I want to work on the many half-written stories that I wish I could finish, the many cycling adventures that I want to partake of, not to mention all of the travel opportunities I’ve had to forgo, and the meetings with friends and family, whom I have neglected over the last few months.

Being a medical student is for all intents and purposes a 24/7 commitment. Non-med students might think that we spend our hours the way the characters do on Grey’s Anatomy. But real med school couldn’t be any more different from the med school life as reconfigured on TV shows and movies.

The first year of med school is all about acclimatising to a whole new world: one in which one has to process tomes and tomes of new information, internalise the names of pills and syrups whose names make for terrible tongue twisters, and get down cold the facts about metabolic processes and the science of the mechanisms that occur within the human body. Not surprisingly, books have become my constant companions, and I spend around 12 to 18 long hours a day studying them. And when I’m overwhelmed by my studies, I can’t help thinking how my flesh-and-blood friends who have taken up other streams of studies seem to be having so much of an easier time. And having so much more fun on the side too.

But whenever I find myself comparing our lives, I take a step back and start thinking about how a challenging curriculum and environment also make for an electrifying experience.  There is the raw excitement of visiting the dissection class and for the first time seeing a naked dead man all readied to be scrutinised; to delve into the details of the viscera, the bulging, almost querying eyes; the tendons, the muscles; to keep one’s focus on the task at hand even as one is fighting the smell of formalin that’s steadily creeping up one’s sinus cavities, clogging them. And then there’s the part about learning everything one can about injections, the stethoscope, the sphygmomanometer—and doing so with wide-eyed curiosity.

Yes, I’ve suffered through the ragging—that dreaded rite of passage—meted out by my seniors, but those very seniors have turned into my mentors now. Yes, there have been weeks that have sped by in a haze brought about by sleepless nights of cramming. And yes, being a med student in real life is nothing like living the glamorous lives led by the caricatures on TV. And yes, I fully comprehend now that the road to getting that ‘Dr’ designation appended to my name is a long, rocky one. But I am proud to be on this road and I can’t wait for that day when I can start helping patients. And for setting me on this path, I’d like to thank my parents.

Suju Bhattarai is a 1st year student at Kathmandu Medical College