Where is the manual?

During gynae clinic today, there was a woman I was clerking. She has had genital warts for 17 years now. So normally, after taking her history, we are supposed to examine the patient and in this case, it meant asking her for permission to see and inspect the warts “down there.”

But I reasoned myself out of it. “I have never done it before. I will first see a senior do it then maybe do it next time?”

Which is what the medical field is about really. It’s an apprenticeship. Someone sort of holds your hand and guides you through the processes of being a doctor.

If only life was like that…

Because in medicine, you can always ask for help. You can always ask for a second opinion. You can always ask for a senior to come and see the patient with you.

But you can’t ask someone to first live your life, then you live your life after seeing notes from them.

Of course we take notes from the lives of other people but truth be told, although there is nothing new under the sun, the nuances and subtle differences that make up our lives are unique to us. Hence our experiences, although with similarities, are unique to us.

Having things figured out

A small debilitating disease of twenty-something year olds is the idea that you have to have everything figured out. That you have to have a plan always. That you have to know what you are doing.

But the truth is, you don’t have to have everything figured out. And you never will. Proof of it?

How often have your plans gone according to plan?

Life is a journey. And you will make unbelievable mistakes (I question if they should even be termed “mistakes”), do a lot of good and a lot more bad, get involved with the wrong crowd, the right one etc.

But don’t stop moving

Came across the following quote today.

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing. Theodore Roosevelt.

Doing nothing is robbing yourself of the very essence of living… Another quote is that one that you probably know if you can’t run, walk, if not, crawl etc.

Conclusion

So where is the life manual?

There is none. So why give yourself the pressure of having figured out life?

If anything, each of us are writing our own manual as we are living it.