The Fantabulous Four

Make tusok-tusok the vein

I just started my Radiology pre-residency at the hospital where I spent my senior clerkship. Memories of humiliation, never-ending tasks, sleepless nights, studying and friendships formed altogether flashed back. One lunch break I decided to eat at the carenderia outside where my groupmates and I used to eat.

It didn’t matter that no one was left to man the wards, Jessa, Jay, Elaine and I always wanted to stick together. We would all be sitting on the bench outside, facing the store’s interiors. We ordered a liter of coke which we made sure was divided equally among the four of us. We lined up our glasses and poured the coke in equal amounts. That was our version of tagay. We were mean kanto kids. While eating we were swapping hilarious stories and throwing insults at one another. Among all the groups in our class, ours was the most bonded. Blame that on our insult sessions, which were actually our bonding moments. I have mastered the art of pang-aasar through these people. Jay was the most brutal, with frequent attacks on our single status. Jessa would retort with her sharpest wits and put Jay to shame. Elaine and I were on more neutral grounds but were nonetheless armed with one-liners when attacked. As if my laughter wasn’t offensive enough. Sure, we were bordering on barbaric but we knew when to stop. I am basically pikon but these folks weren’t mean enough to stimulate my tear ducts.


clowning around at the surgery ward

At times we occupied the 4 beds in the clerks’quarters and just laid there exchanging more stories. When feeling rebellious, we would all be out watching a movie even when one is supposedly on duty. We never got caught anyway. Don’t get me wrong, we all worked our asses off and maintained a strong sense of responsibility despite our misadventures. Among the four of us, I was the black sheep. Not that I was bad, they just happened to be workaholics. Jay was our driver who displayed violent tendencies in one instance when he couldn’t get rid of us and wanted to be alone with our other classmate. We were at the backseat of the car while Jay’s dream girl sat at the front. He couldn’t escape the frequent teasings from us. He was obviously getting annoyed. They were supposed to go on a date but since he still had to drop each of us home, the date had to be cancelled and that pissed him off. After dropping off the love of his life, he started driving recklessly that scared the life out of the 3 of us. Finally, that shut us up. Elaine got off with me at the apartment, we were both shaking out of fear. Jessa, where the most hecklings came from, managed to get home alive.


In our barrio-tic get-ups

At our community immersion, we passed time by playing cards. Loser gets to choose between truth or consequence. We always chose truth anyway. Our deepest, darkest secrets were spilled. From the most trivial to the most profound questions, we took turns in answering them. From the wholesome to the R-rated topics, we tackled them. In the middle of our immersion, we broke the rules again and went down from the mountains to our respective homes. When you’re staying at the rural areas for 10 days how can you not miss your own comfort room? We took the single motorcycle (habal-habal), the mode of transport in our area. Jessa, Elaine and I stacked behind driver while Jay was at the front part of the motorcycle, he sat sideways, looking demure than the rest of us. We looked absolutely ridiculous and couldn’t stop laughing at ourselves. Before dark, we returned to our site and took two separate motorcycles.


we made it through the rain

Since community medicine was our last rotation, when graduation came, were were darker than most of our classmates. It was more noticeable during our graduation ball. Donning our ball gowns, our tanned lines showed, but not the sexy ones you get from sun-tanning in swim suits. Ours were hideous shirt lines that were revealed through our sleeveless gowns.

Fast forward to the future and there was I, having lunch alone at our favorite carenderia. Suddenly I was melancholic. I missed my groupmates. The laughters and ridicules that once filled the area were gone. From the greasy, harassed-looking clerk to the fully-made up pre-resident, I returned to the place with people glancing oddly at me, probably wondering why I chose to eat there. I ordered my favorite dish, the halang-halang. While finishing my lunch, I wondered what’s up with my friends. Jay is an incoming 3rd year surgery resident at East Avenue General Hospital. Jessa is entering 3rd year as well, as a pediatrics resident at PGH. Elaine is earning big bucks as a nurse in the states. She’s getting her own CRV in a few days time. She would also be reviewing for the US-MLE. Meanwhile, I am a bum who quit IM residency who wants a chance at Radiology, currently mending a self-inflicted non-healing wounded heart which at this time should be gangrenous.

Everybody has moved on, we’ve all grown up and are continuously gaining wisdom through the years. Heck, I’m only in my late 20’s, yet all of a sudden I feel like I’m on the twilight zone of my life.