Commencement

Yesterday was the day of commencement.

It was a very interesting experience because, after all the years of not seeing the light in the end of the tunnel, I see the beginning of a tunnel in blackout again—the pursuit to find a full time job.

Guess, life is all about getting in and out of tunnels. lol

Before I got hooded, I, along with my fellow new born doctors, was informed that we should make a point of not to trip down ourselves on the stage since it had never happened before.

When they made that announcement, the lady next to me and I both had this great idea, “Well, since that was a route never visited, maybe we should try it out….” (Didn’t they say exploration facilitates learning lol)

Ended up, I did not have the guts to tumble in front of the whole room because I do not particularly like the pains associated with falling.

I was happy and I did show my happiness on the stage.

As I walked on to the stage, even before my name was called, I sent my kisses to all my families, bosses, and friends.

I was so happy that I gave a happy hug to the Dean, the President, and the trustees.

As I came down the stage, I saw my boss and I threw my arms around him to thank him and all the people at work for all their supports and caring.

I think the cap and gown had put me in a hugging mood cuz I could not stop hugging people all the way into the reception.

So now I am a doctor… finally, it is official.

What am I going to do next? When could I find a position that would allow me to make use of my full potential and to do something better for the world?

The tunnel is still dark. Yet, thank God that my lighter still works (lol), and, at least, it shades some light into the road ahead, though, the scope is limited.

My family and I bumped into my boss George on his way home. We were talking about the graduation ceremony for the doctoral candidates.

The name of George Weiss popped up in our conversation.

George Weiss is the founder and “funder” of the say yes project, which provides people in the lower SES with the assistantship to pursue higher education.

I told my boss that what George Weiss does is exactly what I want to do and what I have been dreaming of.

One day, if I could amount to something and if I could have access to adequate resources, I want to start a foundation. The foundation will provide support for theory-based and scientifically tested projects that aims to better the life of people who live with mental health issues.

What would be the underlying themes behind these projects?

One word—Education (even though it is something so very easily forgotten lol).
How could education better the life of people with mental health issues?

1. First, knowledge is power, to a certain degree. The knowledge people acquired might help them better understand their own problem and, consequentially, their self-understanding might be translated into the development of help-seeking behavior: both in-sourcing and out-sourcing. As a result, they would be able to achieve their full potential and contribute to the society—I call this the conservation of human resources.
2. Second, enhanced education could allow the general public to gain a better understanding about mental health issues. This would help them demystify their understanding of mental health problems. Moreover, there is a need for a paradigm shift in how mental health problems are conveyed to the general public—and this shift goes back to the aka “positive psychology movement.” Other than educating people about how debilitating mental health problems might be, people also need to be informed about cases that demonstrate the resilience of veteran patients.
3. Third, we are living in a world where information technologies have turned into commodity (at least in the developed countries) and computer skills are turning into basic life skills. There is a need to find a way to incorporate information technologies as part of the treatment plan. Of course, before we identify the issue of “how to”, there is a need to locate long-term source of funding to ensure the sustainability of the outcome.

Of course, there are many more things I could think of.

Yet, I gotta stop thinking at this point since I might trip if I look to far ahead… lol

Mama is calling… Time for my beauty sleep!
BTW, I will work on the second part of the analysis on the metacognition model. Gotta put it off for the family reunion and some other mundane tasks in life...