Narasi Perjuangan - Francine Shinie

Francine’s Fight For FMUI

First and foremost, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Francine Shinie, and people who personally know me usually call me Francine. I’m from Jakarta and went to Anglo Chinese School (ACS) Jakarta, formerly known as Sekolah Tiara Bangsa Anglo Chinese School (STB ACS) Jakarta, where I spent my last 12 years of education before enrolling in University of Indonesia (UI). I am currently a medical student at University of Indonesia from the International Class of the Faculty of Medicine batch 2022. I am one of the few who are lucky enough to enter the medical faculty through the talent scouting route, and am very grateful to be accepted through this path of entering. This is due to being accepted considerably early on the 1st of April in comparison to another route called Seleksi Masuk (SIMAK) that only announced the acceptance late on the 14th of July. This granted me the privilege of a three and a half months of grace period to relax and fully take in the fact that my hard work, perseverance, and determination in able to prepare myself to be accepted into FM UI after all these years have finally seemed to be paid off. I’m not saying that the journey would be easy, but in the end, will be worth it. For as long as I can remember, University of Indonesia (UI), specifically the Faculty of Medicine (FM), has been nationally admired. The esteemed faculty is highly respected, and the very few selected who are able to compete and enter are always looked highly upon by everyone, including myself. FM UI students are known to be the smartest of the smartest and the best of the best. They are filtered through a competitive and highly selective process allowing the faculty to gain and maintain its prestigious reputation. I am aware that there has always been a stereotype that the students are constantly stressed out with a heavy pile of workload and an occasional individualism stigma that is easily believable knowing their reputation. Even with the testimonies of multiple seniors in FM UI disapproving of the rumours that are circulating around and saying that it’s bearable if you are serious with your studies with high focus and determination, I still felt worried. Regardless, I strengthened my mentality and held on to my desire of becoming a doctor who graduated from the most prestigious university in Indonesia and kept working hard towards my dream goal. My dedication and commitment to getting into UI kept me through all the tough journeys and intricate processes I needed to endure to get in. Most people like to ask me what my motivation for entering FM UI is, in my answer is to follow in my father’s footsteps. My father always loved helping others, especially the people around him. His definition of success and the personal meaning of the word to him is being able to help others while still being able to make and have enough for himself, which is an unusual and atypical way of defining success since most people would interpret the meaning of the word as being rich, famous, stable, etc. Although I am well aware that there are many other ways of helping others, I personally believe that I would enjoy becoming a medical doctor after looking at my environment helping others by treating patients. Many medical doctors have claimed and told me that being able to help patients by treating them and watching them progress for the better would bring an indescribable feeling of happiness. This motivated me to try my best and put in my all to become a medical doctor. I also crave to help treat others and, at the same time, give back to the people around me. After hearing all the advice and stories of medical doctors, it made me more motivated. The journey of being accepted was not short and smooth, but it was rather long and tough. My parents always tell me that nothing good ever comes instant and that you will always need to work hard to get to where you want or to reach your goal and get what you desire. This saying was reflected in my journey that started when I was quite young. It acted as proof of the wise words they told me that I could still hear in my head. It was when I was in grade 5 that I already started wondering about university briefly and gave medical school a thought even when I was not supposed to. Nobody usually thinks of university at primary yet since it is far ahead and still 7 years away. At that time, what triggered me to think about university was that I was given the option of choosing subjects to study over the course of two years until the end of grade 6. This is since I took the Cambridge Curriculum in which they offered to take two mandatory subjects of Mathematics and English, and allows us to either choose Science or Humanities. I chose to study science and began to notice that I really enjoyed studying it. At that moment, it was the start of me realizing that I actually desired to become a medical doctor. Although, at that time, I tended to be focused on studying first rather than thinking about university since it was still a few years ahead; hence I never had the chance to tell or consult my parents regarding that idea. Fast forward to three years later, at graded 9, when I was told to enrol in Cambridge’s IGCSE Curriculum. The Cambridge IGCSE Curriculum was studied over the course of two years, and at the end of grade 10, we needed to take the IGCSE Exams. There are various subjects to choose from, and we are told to choose and study 8 subjects. There are various levels of mathematics and level of English to choose from, either three sciences subjects or three humanities subjects, and Mandarin or Indonesian as a foreign language. The triple sciences subjects include chemistry, physics, and biology and the triple humanities subjects include business, economy, and global perspective. My subject selections were mathematics, additional mathematics, first language English, literature in English, Mandarin as a foreign language, chemistry, physics, and biology. Since I leaned towards studying sciences and became more sure in my interest, I consulted my parents about taking medical school in which they fully supported me and whatever I chose since they wanted me to decide my own future and wanted me to major in whatever I am passionate in. This was a breath of relief for me, and it lifted my spirit exponentially, knowing that my parents supported me. In order to live up to my own standard and expectations, I took my studies seriously and managed to get 8 out of 8 distinctions, in which I managed to get 7A*s and 1A. This made myself and my parents proud, but weirdly enough, not due to the fact that my grades were nearly exemplary, but because I proved that I am committed to studying and working hard for my own future. Fast forward to after IGCSE, when I reached grade 11, it was time for me to pick my IB subjects for the International Baccalaureate Diploma, which is most crucial for getting into University. The IBDP is two years long and is said to be way harder than IGCSE with a heavily exponential amount of workload, but what most students fear most is the IB Exam that we will be doing at the end of the academic year 12. It will be the determinant of my future and what university I can get into after. My grades 11 and 12 of senior high school, in my opinion, were the most hectic times. I had to balance the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme while keeping up with university application dates and requirements. I had the most challenges along the way during these times. The two most significant examples were when I did my MMPI. This was the main struggle during the application process of getting into FM UI other than studying in school for good grades. My laptop suddenly crashed when I was re-checking my answers, and I had to restart all of the 567 questions I did in 1 hour and 20 minutes in only 40 minutes. But, I calmed myself down, committed, and pulled through it. I assured myself that I had come this far and was not going to give up now or any time soon, so when I finally got the news that I had passed MMPI, it really overwhelmed me and made me proud of myself. This made me remember the commitment I made to myself if I was ever accepted in FM UI was not to be overwhelmed easily, especially when it comes to studying, tasks, and homework. To not stress over irrelevant things and overthink them since it doesn’t do me any good and doesn’t benefit me in any way, shape, or form. I will also study to become the best version of a medical doctor I can be in the future. I also promised my parents after I was accepted into FM UI to give my all, put in my best, and work as hard as possible in medical school since it involves the lives of others, and would want to be a competent medical doctor. My father reminded me not to play around if I’m in medical school, which I agree with because human lives are not something to be taken lightly, and I plan to keep my word after I am accepted. I am committed to maintaining my spirit since I believe this is a lifelong study. I have high aspirations that I and my whole cohort of FM UI 2022 will turn out to be credible, trusted, and most importantly, competent medical doctors in the future. I also hope that our batch will be unified and work cohesively by helping each other and having each other’s backs in the toughest times of all our journeys we are enduring together. My personal aspiration and hope for myself is to enjoy the journey the way it is and to try and hopefully not regret the things I did or did not do. I hope to get as much education as possible in this course to soon put it to good use when I will be helping people in the future and become a competent doctor. With this being said, my short-term plan during preclinical relates and is relevant to my hopes and aspirations of trying to help anyone as much as I can while also doing well myself. I can achieve it by not hesitating to help others when they ask for it, but to be able to help them, I need to study and have spare time too. My long-term plan during the clinic and doctor is to be a doctor that is well-known to be nice, informative, welcoming, and credible. I want to devote my life to helping anyone in need, despite the fact that they are financially well off or not. I want to be able and allowed to treat the patients that come to the hospitals but are unable to afford the medical services. But, in order to achieve it, I will need to be well off or financially stable in order not to care or want payments so that I can support myself too. I aspire not to be a very ambitious doctor that cares about money and fame but treats my patients wholeheartedly because I care about their well-being. Due to this, my hope for the medical community is that they also support and also help everyone in need, not perceiving people differently due to the difference in their finances. My goal in life is for better medical services and that the less fortunate to be able to get the service they actually humanely deserve. If people ask me for advice, my advice for those who are interested in applying to FM UI would be for them to ask themselves if they are definitely sure and want to commit to being a medical student. I will not sugar coat things and blatantly tell them that medical school is tough, it will not be easy, and times will be brutal, but they need to be determined to not give up during the roughest patch of their journeys and constantly reassure themselves not to be selfish because they should realize that they are not only studying for themselves, the knowledge they acquire during medical school will be used to help and hopefully save human lives when they are doctors in the future.