Full? Circle

The first job upon my graduation some 20 years ago was a Medical Social Worker at KK Hospital. I lasted only a year :) My boss, the Chief Medical Social Worker, is a formidable Indian lady. I learned from her how to stand up to my own professional beliefs while working alongside medical professionals like the doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, etc.  Of course she was tight fist when running the small department. When an in-house course on training delivery caught my eye, she was reluctant to approve it because she felt that the Training Manager was no big deal himself and that i'd be wasting my time. But i persisted and insisted lah like how she was often taught us to and she finally relented. After the course, while i agreed that Training Manager was er no big deal, i knew then that training is something i would like to do (and which i did, even today).

Last month, i returned to the profession i started out in and became a Medical Social Worker in a community hospital. Of course i thought of my first boss who has since retired for many years. BUT very unfortunately, i read of her demise in the papers in my first week of work. i told you she was a formidable lady right? The papers even did a nice write-up of her achievements in her work in KK, pioneering counseling to couple who undergo IVF procedures.

i searched for my ex-colleagues and was so happy to reconnect with two of them. i left after only one year at the job and they are still there at the same job 20 years later! They told me that my first boss was very sick in her last days and they have visited her in the hospital before she lapsed into coma.

Today i celebrate the completion of the first month at my new job :) But what is one month compared to the past 20 years my colleagues are at it? i don't know how many one-months will i be at this job, but for now, i find a different kind of purpose and satisfaction being 20 years older....