Reality check.

First, you alienate all your friends so you could concentrate on your studies and get those amazing results that'll book you a place in med school (preferably overseas, cos you've wondered almost all your teenage life what real snow looks like, only to realize when you get there that it doesn't snow in Ireland)

Then, just when you thought your dreams have all come true (i.e you're finally in med school and in a country where they have four seasons) - you find yourself struggling to fit in with the local people. You don't understand them, they don't understand you; you never get their jokes, they never get yours. Eventually, you just give up and stick to your own kind, who by 3 years time are starting to show signs of annoyance at seeing your pathetic face day in day out as you blabber about your miserable existence.

But you don't give up. You have a medical degree to chase. You can't let small setbacks bring you down. And so you keep pushing on, taking those small baby steps as the geniuses around you make extraordinary leaps into greatness. You watch them with envy, wishing you were just a little bit smarter, if not a tiny bit luckier. But you aren't. So as the days stretch by, you've resorted yourself to drown in gloom alone in your room.

Sometimes you try seeking solace in friends back home whom you thought knew you well enough to understand. But as you desperately try to fish for their sympathy, you somehow remember that these are the same friends you alienated years ago for your own selfish reasons. They don't say it out loud, but they hate your guts. They think you're a snob, mostly cos they've long stereotyped you into that category of snobbish med students who dance and play in a magical place across oceans and seas, where (supposedly) snow falls from the sky like wisps of cotton candy.

They can't be more wrong.

But still, sensing their coldness towards you, you start to slowly but surely shy away from these so-called friends of yours (who seem to hate you with a vengeance). Confused, frustrated and alone... nobody ever grasp how miserable you truly are. You keep thinking "Why do people hate me so much?"

You cry yourself to sleep at night, waiting for that phone call from your parents (the only people who'll love you no matter what), only to realize that they won't be calling in the next month or two cos they're off somewhere doing their thing.

Alas, you've come to the awful yet very real conclusion:
"Life as an overseas medical student is not all that great~"

[based loosely on the true story of a struggling med student]

p/s: I'm not yet qualified to diagnose anyone, but all this hu-ha tells me that the prognosis looks grim for people reading medicine. [To all my fellow med-student friends: BE STRONG!!!]

Read this: Many medical students suffer from depression
and this: At least 5 doctors to suffer from mental woes every month