News from the Frontline II : The Last Crusade

Tired.

That's what I am, tired and battle-weary. It's been two years since the last time I picked up the tools of war - and yet here it comes again. I can already hear the battle drums of the enemy playing on the horizon.

The dreaded enemy. The mother of all evil. The scourge of the seven seas.

Also known as exams.

Time and time again, I've tried my best to take this exam Goliath down with the lamentable weapons at my disposal only to have the freaking monster rise again - none the worse for wear - before I've even gotten my meagre store of ammunition ( think primitive sticks and stones ) replenished. No wonder they used to fling open the doors of medical school to admit eager, wide-eyed students by the dozens, no doubt already knowing that the strain of the endless warfare would break so many that only a resilient handful would trickle out at the end of the strenuous five-year campaign.


Damn textbooks!!
And from that handful, even less survive the next few years of arduous, unforgiving internship.

I'm not sure I can even last this last battle. So tempting to just walk away from the scorched battlefield riddled with misty corpses of dreams well lost. Like many of my burned-out compatriots who trudged towards the frontlines before me, the urge to just lay down my weapons and wave the white flag of surrender is near... irresistible.

Even as I grit my teeth and grimly gear up for this admittedly doomed crusade, I can already foresee other battles far in the future since I doubt this monster is going to stay down for long! The neverending fight. After all in the field of medicine, the exam Goliath doesn't stray all that far away - forever stalking the dark wooded perimeters always watching for the smallest sign of weakness.

Sigh.