The Oath is taken. Faces break out in smiles. The significance sinks in and laughter resonates from wall to wall. Friends and colleagues slap each other's backs, hugs are given and hugs are received. It's over or a phase of it at least. Parents breathe a sigh of relief, you breathe one too.
Cameras click to capture the moment, flashes brighten each target- You! Souvenirs exchange hands, yearbooks too. Parents greet parents, doctors greet doctors, parents greet doctors. It's a busy landscape, no, a rowdy but a happy one. Each to his own clique as folks quickly dissolve away in the crowd, blink once and you'll lose a friend in the mammoth. Soon goodbyes are said, promises to call are made, one more picture is taken and people drive off in different directions each inviting the other to a 'small something' this evening.
In a Garden, a party of twenty-four are dancing to some live music. At Sheraton, a family of four is cautiously eating in imperial style. At Rockview Hotel another ten-some are ploughing through the buffet and willing themselves to eat as much as they will be charged. Bottles are uncorked, 'things' are popped, barbecues quickly disappear, fish and chicken parts are devoured. Water comes in handy only when pepper discovers the trachea. In fact, there is a melange of consumable colours on the table and these must all get to the stomach!
For some, this will be till daybreak, for others it will be an early evening because there are kilometres to be covered homeward tomorrow. But when you eventually lay your head tonight to sleep be sure you will not aspirate from overeating, or pass out in a corner from inebriation, or go broke in one night before you ever even start earning, or coil up in foetal position at some toilet with tenesmic hyperdefeacation. When you close your eyes to sleep, say your prayers, thanking God for life, for a supporting family, for loving friends, for dedicated teachers, for comrade colleagues, for being among the few in the midst of many with the privilege of the burden to cure a man's body, touch his soul and reach his spirit for God.
Thank God again because you made it when many didn't.
Thank God you are now medical doctors.
Dedicated to the newly inducted medical doctors and Dental Surgeon of the College of Medical Sciences, Universiry of Benin (UNIBEN), Benin City, Nigeria.
Adaora NWANKWO
