It’s not easy but I love it

As the end of March nears, we celebrate every woman on earth, in whatever place she may be. We wish that remembering her greatness and her power goes beyond the merry month of March.

I’m neither a wife nor a mother yet, but being raised in a family dominated by women, I have no plans of becoming one.

I know I will just fall short of expectations and I don’t want to raise a child as stubborn as I am. I don’t like it (I hate it actually) when people underestimate working moms, single moms. Hey, it’s not easy.

I’m single and I’m having the toughest time of my life that’s why I admire women who wake up at 5 am to prepare breakfast, bring the kids to school, go home and do more chores. When husband and kids come home, they do more chores…it’s endless.

Oh c’mon, even if you have house help, mommies don’t just sit in their chairs and do nothing. Supervising the house help is actually stressful. I’ve seen my mom do it and boy she has patience. I mean, if that were me, I won’t probably be able to finish this because I’ll probably be in jail.

But it’s not just mommies who get the crap and the beating. It happens to professionals too… somehow, I can only speak for myself.

I’m almost 35, I’m a female surgeon. The residency for General Surgery is 5 years. Those are 5 looooong years. I’m glad I’m done with residency. No, not glad… I’m relieved.

There were actually 2 female surgical residents in the institution where I came from, the first one transferred to another department (good for her), the second one moved to another institution. I was the first to finish the residency.

Brotherhood

Gender discrimination is evident from where I came from. It’s always more of you’re a she and you’re going down, you’re a she that’s why you’re inferior. 

They have this “brotherhood” that seems impeccable to many. They like to recruit men over women. However, they really have no choice because more male doctors are picking the easier way, more male doctors are going into Internal Medicine or Pediatrics and more women are going into surgery.

I don’t know if it’s the Grey Anatomy’s effect. I just know that more TV shows are showing the stuff female doctors go through during residency.

At this time, there are 4 female general surgery residents, the present chief resident hails from Ifugao, a single mom, I have nothing but praises for her. She’s the toughest one I’ve seen among my junior residents.

Yes we can.

I’m not going to say women surgeons are more efficient than male counterparts because that’s not always the case. There are good male surgeons as well. I know I didn’t become a surgeon just to be a surgeon. I’m here to tell women that as long as you put your heart into something, you can achieve it, you can be it. 

Who’s the boss?

And don’t mind the people who will actually create Facebook hate pages about you, criticizing your looks, your attitude. Don’t worry about that… they are like watusi. They have their 5 seconds of fame and then they never existed except for the smell they left behind.

Don’t mind your superiors who will ditch you in favor of your male counterparts. These are what I have to say to them: Let’s just count mortalities and morbidities. Let’s see male surgeons actually stand on their own merits.

How about let’s dress up these men and send them to the grocery in heels to buy 3-in-1 coffee sachets then come back and race to the ER because of a patient who just happened to slit his trachea and had planned to look like a pitcher plant? Can you do that? Can you actually race up and down the hospital, look at patients left and right, and just say, “What a day?”

We get criticized for being bossy, manipulative… you know what, you deal with men intoxicated with alcohol and whatever for 5 years, men considered dangerous – are you not going to show them who’s the boss in the Emergency Room? I mean, you want these neanderthals to push you around? Not in this lifetime.

Woman with opinion

The point of this note: Don’t underestimate women surgeons, we know we’re damn good at this. And that’s not just for surgeons…every female living in this planet has experienced gender discrimination for at least once in her life.

I know that gender is only an issue to the insecure and I wonder why. Could these gender-biased individuals actually envy us who wear skirts?

March is the month for women, it’s also the month of fire… women + fire? Deadly combination.

Think about this: More women die from childbirth and domestic violence than breast or cervical cancer. It’s not easy.

Think about it. Do you want to be part of the statistics? Do you want your daughter, sister, friend to be one of the 11?

Napoleon Bonaparte said women are nothing but machines for producing children – hahaha, strong statement coming from a guy who didn’t have a plan because it rained!

I know that after this note, I will prove again that a woman with opinion is always a bitch to society. 🙂

Happy women’s month. – Rappler.com