Much Ado About Helmets

I've lived in semi-rural, semi-urban Dumaguete City for nearly most of my life. Part of the joys I take advantage of when I'm home is riding my motorcycle because, as much as a car offers shade from the midday sun or the occasional sudden downpour and you don't have to worry about getting an insect in your eye, nothing beats the wind in my hair and exhilaration of zipping along the city streets on a two-wheeled motorbike.

Yup, no helmets here.

From memory, I know some law-enforcing agencies have tried to implement the helmet rule years back but seemingly, Dumaguete is above that rule. Local officials even went as far as declaring that helmets are only needed for out-of-the-city trips.

Give or take a year before, Silliman University instituted a helmet rule in the campus -- meaning you'd have to be wearing a helmet if you were to drive a motorcycle inside the campus. It was funny because, being in a city where motorcycles are a main mode of transportation, students would hang helmets from elbows, handlebars, or keep it in their bags until they had to use it to get into Silliman.

Just a few weeks ago, officials from the DOTC and LTO launched an operation in the city to catch people on motorcycles not wearing helmets. Now, elected city officials have filed a complaint regarding the matter and that what they did is not constitutional.

OK, settle down for just a minute.

Helmets? Oh the joys of living in Dumaguete. Yep, Wall Street is crashing, terrorist attacks, economic turmoil, all that doesn't matter to us here.

I'd be the first to say that I hate wearing helmets when I'm driving. It takes away part of the fun I get when I drive (remember wind in my hair...). But I've also become a doctor and I've seen my share of deaths in the emergency room and seen more than a couple of lives saved by using some head-protective gear. Just because it's inconvenient to put on a helmet and drive a motorcycle a couple of blocks from Silliman to Lee Plaza, it does not mean that the risk that a 10-wheeler cargo truck could hit you while you cross any of the 3 intersections in between, is taken away. Sure that scenario could be a bit overkill and the helmet wouldn't protect you anyway, but I'll see you the next time in the ER when you would be regretting why you did not wear one when CT scans show a skull fractures or subdural hematomas.

Honestly, I probably will not wear a helmet while I drive around my city in my motorcycle. But I'm saying we should.

If that time comes, I'll be using the car.

Wow

I rediscovered the TV these past few weeks after spending the past years in med school.

I saw this recurring ad at a particular channel announcing the concert of Paul Potts in the Philippines. And I said Paul who? I didn't have any idea who the guy was, but it certainly piqued my curiosity.

I knew he didn't look much like an opera singer, but I got the idea he sang arias and whatnot.

I knew he must have come from a reality talent show but didn't know where.

I only got to search him recently and I am sharing his talent and story with you.

Paul Potts' audition on Britain's Got Talent singing Giacomo Puccini's "Nessun Dorma"

My goosebumps had goosebumps.

I was as slack-jawed as Simon Cowell.

All I could say was "WOW."

Check out tidbits of his story here.

The Road Less Traveled (Doesn't Exist)

Sorry Mama Gaya, I didn't have any original ideas as to what to blog about as I contemplated not blogging for the rest of September as I have already blogged more this month than I ever have before, but, I know you get cranky when you don't have anything to read so bear with me as I rehash your own blog topic.

What I'm saying is that the road less traveled does not exist. Yes, it does not.

All that is left is, simply, the road. Roads, in fact.

I know there are people better suited to studying this stuff, like shrinks and psych people, but I've simply concluded that the road less traveled is a myth. Or maybe, just maybe, I'm making this stuff up to make an excuse for my decisions, the lack thereof, or the doubting if I'd ever make the right one. With that blow to the credibility of this blog topic, I'd like to present my case.

Case one: Here's a young Filipino doctor, idealist, save-the-world, rookie, deer-in-the-headlights look on his face at the crossroads after facing the boards and emerging victorious chooses to go into residency right after to specialize and earn at the same time (not that it's much to live on). He stays in the country, and earns a living as a good clinician. Yet he wonders, what would his life be if he went to the US or UK to practice there? What would his life be if he enjoyed life a bit after boards and did a little moonlighting? What would it be like if he just wrote novels for a living or chose another specialty?

Case two: Here comes another Filipino doctor, strong-willed, brave, and chose to take the USMLE, or let's say fell in love with uhm, let's say, New Zealand, and after attending a couple of seminars and moonlighting jobs saved enough money to join the exodus of doctors to foreign lands in search of better pay and adventure. He has the time and resources to see the rest of the world out there, leaving friends, family and significant others, to come back a millionaire with dollars, euros and whatnot. Still he wonders if his life would be better off if he stayed and established himself here? Or had he went into residency or simply being with people who matter to you?

Case three: A third Filipino doctor, compassionate, happy-go-lucky, go-with-the-flow type of personality who knows that he wants to touch people's lives with his work. He does outpatients at a self-made clinic as a general physician, and is adored by the people he serves though most patients barely afford his services. Yet he still wonders basically the same stuff that all the other guys worried about (couldn't type all that again).


Can one really say to the other that "I took the road less traveled?"

Number one says I took the road less traveled because so few doctors stay, go into residency and build their careers from there. Num 2 didn't 'cause it's the trend to go out of the country, and num 3 is easy because he handles the outpatients and doesn't get the bad cases.

Number two gets up, and indignantly exclaims that he took the road less traveled because he was the one who braved the discrimination and insensitivity of foreign lands to build his own career. Num 1 got it easy because he stayed with family and friends and agreed to what num 1 said about num 3.

Number three argues that he took the road less traveled because he barely gets paid for his services sacrificed specialization and the call of going abroad to serve his calling to help people.

Enter me.

I come in and explain to them that the road less traveled does not exist. It is merely a road -- a choice that you make for yourself. A choice that you feel you most likely can live with and not necessarily, always feel good about. Sure, there will always be the intersections towards the roads you didn't take, and there will be times where you'll ask yourself, what ifs and what about ifs, but it's just another turn at the intersection or go straight ahead on the road your on.

Lately, the road less traveled has become an excuse for those with regrets.

And I try my darndest not to ever be one.

Sure, sure, any psychologist could make the case that this post could be my rationalization for my own crossroads and all the cases are me (just thought I'd all beat you to it), but ask yourselves, does the road less traveled exist? Or are you just saying it does just to prove a point?


Choices are hard regardless of the number of people who have come before you and made the same hard decisions whether to take the left at the crossing, go straight ahead, or the right at the fork.

Now that I got that off my chest, where's the map at?