KtyL's blog

On last week's Medical English class, we watched the film Wit, starred by Emma Thompson. This film tells the story about an English Literature professor, Vivian Bearing, how her thoughts change after she was diagnosed with cancer and started her therapy.

One can have a lot to think about in this film. As medical students, we concern more about doctor-patient relationships than those abstract ideas about life and death. From Vivian's viewpoint, we see how she is treated by different characters: as a research object? a customer to be served? or a person to be helped? "Every 5 or 10 years, when you've become an intern, a resident, a VS and so on, you should watch this film again. Your reflection will change with time." Said our teacher of this week' class, Dr. Shen.

There are so many ideas popped up and disappeared in my mind while I watched this movie that when the credits appeared on the screen, I hardly knew what to say about this movie. Among all those vague ideas, I think I'll talk about my uncertainty about my future.

I'm quite afraid that I might become like the young and unconcerned doctor, Jason, in my near future. Jason does have enthusiasm in his job - in cancer research. It became very clear in the scene which Vivian ask him why he choose Oncology as his subprofessional. He brightens up when talking about the amazing tumor cell. But compare to that, to Jason, caring patient become a routine to fulfill. And most of the time he treat Vivian like a guinea pig in the lab. Caring people is not what he really wants to do. He's more of a scientist than a physician.

And what about me? The main reason that I compromised to choose medicine as my major is that I want to know more about human body and mind. I want to understand more about how our body functions to proceed some amazing tasks. But I have little interest in caring patients. I have the willing to cure them, to make them relief, but I am not the kind of person that shares others' pain and sorrow. This is what makes me not want to become a doctor in the first place. However, here I am, in the medical college where one should prepare himself to be a competent and successful physician. And again the film Wit reminds me of my fear of the future and uncertainty to go on.