Fashion Statements

I've always been the one to dress comfortably and have always chosen function over form sacrificing color schemes, coolness, and at times, sense, to be relaxed in what I wear. I laugh as this often means shorts, a loose fitting shirt, and sandals. I would definitely say that if you met me along the streets of Cebu or looking like a fool in Ayala, you would never think I'd look like a doctor.

Heck, even the salesladies and store owners in Ayala give me a once-over, before catering to their other customers. Most of the time, it doesn't bother me that the people at a sneaker shoe store don't really approach someone like me in thinned-out light brown Islanders as their first priority customers as compared to the decked-out well suited porma guys, or the Korean subtitle-speaking tourists (they do approach everybody eventually, but I'm not so sure if it's to keep an eye on me, shoo me away, or entice me to a sale). I don't quite get why the almost always empty layshu (sosyal) watch and jewelry places, don't have people with better dispositions (I've bought jewelry exactly twice in my life, the first was because it was what I could afford, and the second one was because they were the only jewelry store who smiled when I came in despite my appearance).

But that's really not the point.

Doctors are expected to look a certain way. I think people expect a certain look from not just doctors, but professionals in general.

Looking at this, there are the right down formal physicians who don the designer dresses and the cool long-sleeved shirts and expensive ties. They are head-turners and bring just-as-expensive bags and wear slick shoes. They don't necessarily make them better doctors, just better-looking. It creates an impression, even among those of us who don't and can't dress us good.

For most of us, we stay in the middle. Dressing up with the occasional jeans and slacks with a mix-match of buttoned shirts. There are those who practice and live in hospitals in the far-flung barrios of the Philippines and do rounds in sandals and whatnot, and for that I admire them. Imagine me just looking over a patient's chart wearing my basketball shorts and Pistons jerseys. Well, at least I'd have a really comfortable doing it. I'm just not sure other people will take my advice to heart though if I'm dressed in a shirt with the sleeves cut off.

The point is, doctors act like doctors -- they think, treat, cure, operate, sacrifice, charge and just simply are. It is not a function of fashion. We do not wear our profession. For some of us, we let our skills do the talking. So when you meet me, doing my rounds in cargo shorts and a shirt, it might help if you give me some credit, haha.