One usually says he’s back to reality after he’s been on a fantastic trip and has to go back to work. That’s not the case in this circumstance, though. I’m on my flight back from KL, having finished my exam, anxious about the results which isn’t due for one month. The thing is, I didn’t really enjoy KL, and I’m glad I’m going back to my beloved civilized city of Hong Kong.

The way I left reality was manifold. At the superficial level, KL was hell, so HK is a desirable reality. Little fascinated me in KL. My hotel room could be the single most attractive point of interest. The affordable prices in KL mean I could do luxury things in abundance: staying in Hilton, ordering room service, taking taxi/Uber when I travel, … On room service my friend @Johnson put it in a precise way: 你真係叫雞, when commenting on me ordering Hainannese chicken rice. Other than what’s mentioned, I didn’t really have other fascinating experience in this city. 

Another way I left reality, and in fact I’ve been doing this for the past couple of months, was how I prepared for exams.

There were eight candidates from HK in total. Our attitudes were quite different. Some having a busy clinical career just treated exam as another chore, spending little time on revision, and cared less about the outcome. Going to work and making money is on a much higher priority in their list. But for me and a few others, failure is not an option. I mean, I haven’t failed a single exam in my life, not even any key skill assessment, nor my driver’s license exam. This MFDS Part 2 couldn’t be an exception. And although some knowledge and skills tested in this exam were trivial, they were still of clinical relevance. So I spent a whole lot of efforts preparing for this exam since November, and in March I even took one-third of my time off for preparation/travelling to KL.

But this, I understand, is immature. I mean, I’m not in my late teens or early 20s. I’m in my late 20s, and I should be busy developing my career, working to form a family or something. Yet I spent so much time doing exams that won’t guarantee more money. This, alone, is unrealistic. 

What should I do then? Well, I’m going to enjoy life when I get back to HK. I’ll endeavour to make some money in April and May, then I’ll go to Sweden/Denmark in June. No, money is still not on the top of my list; life is. I know I’m going to hell, and I’ll regret that in my 40s. If my site survives another 15 years, I’ll read this, and I can’t wait to see how I feel about myself.