I Enter The Working World Tomorrow

Ever since I was in Year1, I have been hoping, praying and wishing that I would get Johor when I start my compulsory three year service with the government.

The reason is very obvious. Chee Kiang has three years with the Singaporean government as well.

With fingers and toes crossed on a couple of Fridays ago, it was written in the letter from the healthy ministry that I was indeed due to report at Jabatan Kesihatan Negeri Johor! I was ecstatic!!

Long story short, I thought I could get my way again the second time around but as expected, Johor Bahru was just wishful thinking for now and here I am in Kluang, feeling nervous about my first day of work tomorrow.

The stuff going through my head seems to be even more than the feelings I had about finishing dental school and graduating. It just seems like a different ball game, this working thing.

Prior to driving to Kluang, I had a very difficult time finding a place to stay. Kluang is not quite real estate heaven, no one bothers to list any properties for rent on any of the property websites. But fortunately I had a junior from school, Vivian, and a new friend I met on twitter, Jonathan, (thanks Jason for introducing us!) who each gave some suggestions as to where I should stay.

Google maps became my best friend and I think the GPS is probably the best thing since the mobile phone. Seriously. Papago is actually better than Garmin in terms of refreshing rate.

The point is….I have to try to do this on my own. I’m scared but at the same time I am excited. I have to keep reminding myself that I am not here to be a student, I am here to work and earn money. Like ACTUAL money that gets deducted for EPX, income-tax. I’m still trying to take it all in. Walking into the KWSP office in Shah Alam was still rather surreal for me.

I still feel like a freaking student!

I was of course a little disappointed that I got Kluang (the other choice was Kota Tinggi). But at least I am in Johor. All this while I was just blinded by the fact that Chee Kiang and I can shorten our distance for the first time in almost six years but when I reported for work at the hospital, the seriousness of the job settled in and I think the motivation is sinking in as well. I’m not just here because I love someone, I’m also here because I have a purpose to serve. I’m pretty gung-ho about this new job, if you can’t tell. I heard that my clinic will have 100 patients a day. That sounds pretty awesome either way.

Kluang is only three hours from home and about 1.5-2 hours to Singapore..see lah if I want to drive or something. I can even take the KTM from here!

Being working adults (wahhhh), Chee Kiang and I will probably have less time to see each other if I was posted back home. But with me being in Kluang, seeing each other would be easier and by seeing each other more, we get to be in the same line of thoughts as we grow through this phase of our lives. We have so much to think about for the future – not just marriage lah u kepo aunty – but like where we actually want to live, what we actually want to do with our professions ..we need to settle down somewhere. And without constantly talking about it, we can never reach an agreement.

With discussions of big issues, come disagreement I’m sure. So if we maintained our distance of over 800km and seeing each other only every 1-2 months, once, (sometimes we are lucky enough to have reasons to see each other for three weekends at a go, or a few days of holidays together when we were still in uni) we won’t be able to talk about the big stuff and ideas would individually form in our heads as we grow up. We make up our own minds about what we want in life and automatically assume that’s what the other one wants as well.

But being here, nearer, we won’t have to spoil any rare weekend by disagreeing about something that we want together in the future. That’s the idea of why I chose Johor. 🙂

My stomach keeps clenching whenever I think about my first day at work. I worry about arriving late, I worry about making first impressions, I worry about parking spaces at the clinic, I worry about my lunch! And please don’t get me started about worrying if any of my clinical knowledge has escaped my brain. SO DAMN SCARED! AHHHH!!!

This will be my first real job. It’s a definite jump from the days where I worked part time at a nail art salon in Sunway Pyramid when I was 15. From scrubbing callus from the feet of rich tai tais, pushing back their cuticles, changing the dirty water (had to row 20 litres of dirty water to the nearest toilet) every morning and sweeping the floor…..to well, being a dentist!

Wish me luck…I’ll be needing it. 🙂