Lessons From My 2nd Year in MSC (Part 1)

Ah, I've now started my 3rd year of medical training. This also means that I'm approaching the end of my 2nd term in the Medical Students' Society (MSC), both as the Head of the Education Bureau. This is an interesting experience, as everything is different; I've not held a "bureau"-type of post since my SPM years, the Kuantan campus environment, way of working, "worldview", program targeting and planning, and pretty much everything else is different. In matric, you lead a team of students for organizing programs for your own friends; in my 2 years of experience, a same team of students may organize programs for our own friends, juniors, seniors, and even those of not of our own University. Each of these target groups require their own programs, approach, etc. Acquainting myself with being in such a post took a whole 1 year; my whole 1st year was spent being tutored by Sis Awla (then my Assistant Head) and Bro Shams Amir (then my President), during my 2nd year I was responsible for leading my whole team, learning to organize programs while at the same time giving them training for their own future leadership ambitions.

The reason I'm writing this blog post is to share with you important lessons that I think are relevant for anybody entering a student body. Some of these lessons are not applicable to everyone; I will be talking from my perspective, but these lessons may be applicable nonetheless, if not during campus life, then during working life. Here goes:

1) Sex? It doesn't matter. I've always believed in meritocracy. Sex quotas are not needed. Whoever does the job well should do it. Believe me or not, I used a team of which I was the only guy, and things worked very well in my opinion. Modern-age girls are more cooperative, hardworking, team-spirited, and creative. Guys are more of a fuss to deal with.

2) Ambition comes before getting the post. You will always be assimilated into new posts. Plan what posts you'd like to hold, and hope you get that particular post. Be ambitious about what you 'd like to do before actually holding the post; simply try to achieve the ambition right when you've held that post while acquainting with the new role and system. Planning after holding a post is a late move; acquaintance requires action, and action may only be done based on proper planning beforehand. 1-2 months of action may be wasted after you get that post without prior planning, as you will be busy with other issues (e.g. studies) that may make planning difficult, holding back any action.

3) Time is like that hot chick; better chase her before she runs away. Better study and chase that hot girl as if she means everything in this world. In medical school (IIUM at least), the study periods, exams, revision weeks, breaks, etc. are all different between different years. What happens is that at any one time, there may be a particular year having lectures, another having exams, another at home, etc. It's difficult to meet together. This does not take into account activities that might have been organized from other bodies, e.g. Students' Representative Council, Mahallat Representative Council, and even other Kulliyyah-based societies. As soon as you get a post, check the calendar, note down periods where your target groups are available, and book them with your programs before somebody else books that date. Ideally, this should be done within 2 weeks, and better still within 1 week of holding a post. Failure to plan ahead your program dates will lead to a backlog of planned programs due to those time slots being nfilled by other activities planned by others, unless if you're interested in competing for participating students.

There are more lessons that I'd like to share; I'll continue with this post later when I've the time.