this is emie. she's a doctor.

there are different ways we get introduced to people.

it almost always start with your name, followed by maybe a little bit more information about you.

like, this is emie. she was my friend in college.

or she was my neighbour.

or she works in JB now.

or she's so and so's daughter/sister/cousin etc.

you get the picture.

a small polite conversation then usually follows this introduction.

but what happens after you get introduced to people and they mention your occupation instead?

like, this is emie, she's a doctor.

well, when you get introduced as a doctor, most times you get these raised, often questionable eyebrows first as a response.

at least i do. as if to say, really? she doesnt look like a doctor. 

or really? i thought she's a teacher (refer to another previous blog entry. this i take as flattery) .

or she sure isnt dressed like one. (this will make my aruah mama go i told you so. she told me so soooo many times).
or really? she's too cute to be a doctor. (okay, i made that one up).

then other questions usually follow. 

if you're a doctor, some people may ask you where you work, which hospital, is it a busy/nice place, even maybe which medical school you went to etc.

or some people will just straight up ask you a medical question, more often than not, pertaining to their own health or worries about a certain ailment that they have, rather than a general question like, how about that zika,huh?

itu okay lagi. you still try your best to answer their questions.

but it's a little awkward when this is at a funeral, or you're visiting someone ill at the hospital, and you get introduced to the person's relatives who are also visiting, like what happened to me recently. a friend's close one was critically ill and admitted to the icu, so i went to visit. the atmosphere was sombre, the person was on a ventilator, with tubes and wires running to and from his body, the machines were beeping. there was another relative there so i was introduced by my friend as emie, old friend. she's a doctor. the relative then proceeded to asking me what i initially thought was going to be with regards of the ill person that we were visiting. understandably. may be she's hoping i could help explain certain things further.

but no. she actually went on to tell me about how she was also hospitalized in the same hospital a few times already for multiple surgeries, the last one on her uterus, just last year. i just listened politely and nodded a few times, i see, i see.

she then went on to tell me she is still having some symptoms which she wasn’t sure if it was related to the surgery or the underlying condition that she had, or whether there is a new diagnosis or if it was all part of the aging process, and asked if i knew what they were.

errrrrrrkk…

so i said, well i'm not a gynae so maybe you can ask your gynae next time you see him/her. i looked over at my friend and saw that HE looked real apologetic.

seriously.

that's not the worst scenario though.

imagine a kenduri kawin. you are really hungry, and boy does that nasi minyak look yummy & inviting, let's quickly find a seat. a relative sees you and calls you to sit near him/her. you gladly walk over, that plate of warm nasi minyak + rendang daging + ayam masak merah also calling you to quickly grab a seat so you can quickly eat (hey that rhymes!)

another introduction of ini emie, anak so & so, dia doktor kanak-kanak by the relative to a pakcik you dont know and his family.

this pakcik you were introduced to then briefly looks at you, washes his hands (he was eating) and lifts up his shirt to show you that rash/mole/growth/something-that-looks-like-a-map-of-somewhere on his belly/chest/armpit (!), and asks you if you know what it was, he's had it for awhile now, so can it be cancer?

the nasi minyak suddenly turns cold and no longer look appetizing.