Epilogue – Stop
EPILOGUE
STOP
The Great Unlearning
There’s a saying concerning us doctors – that we spend so many years stuck in med school and then, confined within the realms of our practice, that we’re practically idiots about anything and everything else that’s not medicine. After this trip, I can honestly say I agree 100%.
I left for this trip knowing very little about this world. Well, much of the stuff I had learned back in school, but when these things stop being relevant in your day-to-day life, that knowledge is pushed to the back of your mind or forever gone. That’s exactly what had happened to me. The more I travelled and experienced, the more that same knowledge buried deep within my psyche seemed to be unearthed. In just a year, I feel as if I’ve done a refresher course of my primary and secondary school days, reawakening within me the passion to learn and to be curious. It’s funny how it was the same educational system that had extinguished that same passion.
Now? Now I feel as if I have a deeper understanding of the world around us. Throughout these few months, the things I had learned back in school were directly relevant once again. From being told about the flora and fauna of a certain habitat to being explained how plate tectonics work and how the earth is formed; from having to study maps to figure out my next move to looking at weather charts to plan my day; from observing different constellations to knowing how a planet is formed; from seeing the devastating effects of climate change to seeing the havoc we wreak on our environment; from learning all about different indigenous mythologies to appreciating different kinds of architecture; from discussing politics with locals to debating philosophical arguments with complete strangers; from becoming fluent in Spanish to practically forgetting all my French. All the seemingly unimportant and irrelevant subjects I had been taught ages ago were suddenly brought out to light.
Life Skills, Bad Boys, and Optional Excess
And that’s just the things I wanted to learn or relearn. The list of life skills I had to learn with or without wanting to runs just as long.
Like how to do my own laundry in a sink with hand soap. Or how to waterproof myself in the middle of a torrential downpour. Or how to use only a third of the stuff I had packed in my giant bags. Or how to withstand freezing cold showers. Or how to go about my business when I’d have a roach crawling all over my body. Or how to throw toilet paper in the trash instead of flushing it. Or how to unwrap the annoying tissue paper surrounding the damned cutlery. This list could literally go on forever.
Oh, and the stuff nobody wants to teach you. Like how to bribe police officers in order to not end up in jail. Or how to go around being an illegal immigrant without it ending up on your conduct or ruining your perfect itinerary. Or how to get so high the only thing you can verbalise is “This is so good!”. Or how to smuggle illegal stuff across international borders. Or how to multiply your well-earned money into not-so-well-earned money on the black market. I guess I am kind of a bad boy now, huh?
Then there were the things that were entirely optional. Like the stuff I had been doing for quite a while – say trekking and snorkelling. The stuff I’d always wanted to do but had never gotten around to – like diving, surfing, and yoga. And then there were things I never even thought were possible – climbing volcanoes and walking over glaciers, for instance. Also getting tattooed and having to repierce my nipple twice… since we’re mentioning new experiences.
Letting Go
And, finally, the ‘matters of consequence’ that used to drive my life. Like spending all my time in the hospital at the cost of neglecting everything else in my life. Like spreading myself too thin trying to keep up with social commitments. Like being too hard on myself and trying to live up to the ridiculously high standards I’d set for myself. Or the frivolous, trivial stuff. Like spending all my hard-earned money on the chicest of clothes. Like going out to drink and club every single weekend. Like getting all mixed up in toxic drama and gossip. All these things I learned I could easily go without. Actually, I think I’d kinda want to kill myself if I went back to being that type of person.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the world has been a by far better teacher than school has, and that the amount of stuff I’ve managed to learn in such a short time seems hardly possible. And, looking back onto this year, I am now more than excited for what’s to come. I want to keep this up. I wanna keep on enhancing my knowledge – and not just with regards to medicine. I wanna keep learning about our natural world, about our history, our society, our cultures. I wanna learn more languages and connect with more people than ever before. I wanna learn new skills and practice different kinds of things.