The Good Old Kemcolian Spirit

By Konpal Mudassar

“We are Kemcolians. Cream of the nation! Highly gifted, highly talented and honourable. The Kings and Queens. Pride of the nation!”

This is something that every Kemcolian feels. But, hey! That was last year when we came as 1st year, full of that annoying levels of energy and resolve. When we thought we could conquer the whole world with our awesomeness. Tsk, we were so immature!

Le’ 1st year with their dreams

 But that was Before Proff hit us like:

 Now we are the seniors, the gorgeous Bajis and the cool Bhais of 2nd year. And Proff has drained us of all that nonsense “Over-eagerness”. Or maybe we just realized that studying was not “our thing” and so we gave up on that and decided to look for “other things”. Watching movies all day is “a thing”, okay?

We like to make ourselves believe that these extracurricular things we have involved ourselves in, will polish our skills, teach us valuable lessons and allow us to express our creativity but really, for most of us, this is our level of creativity:

You ask, What about those hopes and dreams that we once cherished? 

We still like to play the “Kemcolian card” though, whenever needed because let’s face it, it has its many benefits like a few listed below:

1. You can slack off all you want, you would still be respected because you are “KEMCOLIAN”:
 No matter how many lectures we bunk, on returning home, we are treated like heroes returning from war (we did get up and go to university, some people don’t even do that, so it’s all fair). We plop down comfortably on the sofas and tell the happenings of the day with characteristic-Pakistani-style-of-exaggeration. Although, this tactic does not always work when your mom realizes that it has been ages since we last touched our books. They realize we are the same lazy-couch-lovers who did nothing but stare at television screens all day. 

2. The Countless Opportunities to show off:
Let us not forget that awesome moment when some stranger asks us, “Beta, kahan parhtay ho?” and we do that hair flip and put on those sunglasses and be like,
“Aanti, Me KE se doctor ban raha hon”

Hahaha, and those poor Premed students, they are instantly impressed by us. As soon as you say the word, “King Edward----“, they put you on the top of the list of their role models. (Looks can be deceiving? I say, never judge a person by their institution)
And the way those hope-to-be-kemcolians look at us is just so satisfying.

The respect, the admiration and the attention that we get. We all love it and enjoy it. And after all, we deserve it, don’t we?


3. The shining future that awaits you and me:
We have a bright future ahead of us (or at least we think so). Our oh so wild imagination lets us think: I'll either clear USMLE and go abroad, if that doesn't suit me, i can always always own a clinic or a hospital in Pakistan. Long story cut short; I vividly imagine a future loaded with money.

Oh! The joys of owning our very own Estate houses and finally we will be rich enough to afford luxury cars. Driven by that teenage memory when we in our innocence, mentioned our hopes to some cruel dream crushers about how we would one day own a Porsche and they told us, “Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror; Porsche and that face don’t belong together,” that day became the day we vowed to buy one just to rub it in their face.

Le' Kemcolian before getting rich

 And to drive it in front of their house again and again. Maybe even accidently hit them.

Le kemcolian after getting rich

Kemcolian spirit is still alive!
Coming back from all that, and getting a bit serious. Even though a lot of our initial enthusiasm has died down, we still have plenty of that Kemcolian spirit:

To be the best, you have to actually BE THE BEST.

 While we do enjoy slacking off and day dreaming in lectures thinking about a luxurious future, we know that there are a lot of other things in life that are far more important. We know that there will be times when we will have to put others above us. We knew it the moment we chose this noble profession that our lives will not be easy. Medical profession demands seriousness, compassion and sincerity. Every human life is sacred. Because none of you, would want to have the blood of innocent lives staining your hands.

None of you would want your patients dying because of your negligence and all of us know that as doctors; our success will not be measured by our wealth. And when the time demands it; we will put aside our comforts and rise to the occasion.

We are gifted and blessed by the Almighty. He gave us brilliant minds, imaginative powers, an able body, ability to work hard but above all; he gave us “good and kind hearts.” 

Blessed are those, who find happiness by helping and serving others and know how to value the joys of companionship. 

And when you are so blessed; you have the responsibility to make sure that you use those abilities for a greater cause. By understanding our responsibilities and making selfless struggles; we can aspire to become one of the legendary doctors much like our great professors and former Kemcolians.

And that is what it truly means to be a Kemcolian, the Pride of this nation.
Altapete : aim higher!

So, don’t give up on those dreams, you may not be able to save the whole world but you can save a small part of it. For those few people that you do save, you will always be a hero and a savior.