My Uriel has been nagging me for the longest time to resume working for the profession we've sweated blood and tears in college to practice: Pharmacy. After we've passed the boards, we have tied the knot with it.
Like a wife that needs to be monetarily benefited, I pay the PTR every year - just in case I felt like practicing again...and renew the license regularly very 3(or was it 2?) years so I could be updated at the PRC (Professional Regulatory Commission). He's irritated that I kept borrowing (not that often!?) money from him for that...which he thinks illogical and a waste of money.My mind agrees with him completely. Why not? The government earns money off me more than I earn from my "profession".
Ever since I got my license, I've been paid for pharmaceutical positions a little over than the basic pay for ordinary employee...which is an injustice, considering that rank and file employees do not undergo rigid evaluation after they graduate (like taking the board exams, for instance!). Pharmacists have to worry themselves about documents for the Bureau and other government agencies (which involve a lot of PR and diplomacy to get things done without That fact disillusioned me from the practice of pharmacy.
Like a mistress waiting for an opportunity for the tempted to succumb to her charms, I fell for the practice of Education. I was in between jobs when I was invited by one of the popular health science colleges in manila to be their lecturer for a semester. They've been short of professors lately and since they think I'm qualified for that, they've been bugging me since. So I gave in.
I taught senior and junior students of pharmacy all the pharmaceutical sciences I've learned from the practice and of course what I learned when I was in college. I never realized what power I hold in molding the minds of my future colleagues - they were awed by the fact that they've been taught by a board exam topnotcher (which I never flaunted, or thought of as anything special.) I was easily popular with the students because I have made it my personal mission to teach only what can be useful in actual practice.
Like all relationships, my mistress gradually showed her true colors as the one-semester contracted ended and was renewed to a full teaching contract (one whole school year). I began to feel the professional jealousy of my co-professors who are much older and definitely more experienced than I am. There were smattering of intrigues and subtle bribes offered by my students. I was getting noticed adversely by the conservative administration for my radical teaching styles. I got tired of handling many students (imagine, 1 class will have an average of 80 students!). I was overworked beyond compare...It took one big fight with my beau boi before I finally realized I needed to strike a balance somewhere.
I quit my teaching job there and drifted from one teaching job to another. I taught middle school, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, high school students, post-college students...It was exhilarating how I managed to get into my student's psyche and teach them what they ought to know. But still, I'm getting rustier and rustier in Pharmaceutical Science.
Despite of all the teaching I did, I neglected the profession that I swore to practice till I die. It took me a failing grade in the APEC to realize that...much to my disappointment. It humbled me to a point that I had to be a pharmacist again. So...I struck an idea: MOONLIGHTING.
I looked for a job as a pharmacist for a food supplement shoppe in a nearby mall in the afternoons and taught in the morning at a nursing college. It enabled me to enjoy the best of both worlds. I work part time for 20 hours a week in the college while I have 50 hours a week in the shoppe. Although my husband and I split the household bills, I earned enough for my (and his) luxuries and debts.
It's a fun experience, although some of my friends caution me that it's exhausting (which is true...imagine rushing from one place of work to another) and that it might limit my chances of bearing and caring for children-to-be. Uriel and I take it in stride...we're not much of a hurry for anything.
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