Stee-rrrike!

I put on a softball glove, & picked up a softball bat today for the first time after a lapse of almost 20 years. I can already feel my muscles protesting & I dread tomorrow morning when I am SURE that I will have trouble crawling out of bed...groan.

In medical school, I played softball for my year (remember the FMS shield? Hmm, I wonder if the annual competition is still being held, with the grand finale of a play which made up a huge chunk of the total score!), & also for the faculty. It was always the same group of people taking part in the various sports. I, myself, not that I am a great athlete, did softball, tennis, squash (go figure) and basketball, in addition to lending a hand in making the props/costumes for the play.

I remember in our final year, everyone was very "boh chap" about taking part in the FMS games because we were all panicking & busy trying to revise for the finals. So not surprisingly, our year was at the bottom of the scoreboard once all the games had been tallied. All that was left was the final play.

24 hours before the day that the plays were supposed to be performed, the "usual" group of us decided, what the h***, this is our final swansong, might as well go for it. A very talented classmate put together a play, inspired by the successful British comedy "'Allo 'Allo", with music & lyrics even. We rehearsed into the wee hours of the night, put together a medley of costumes (some loaned from the Franciscan monks!), & used minimal props for the performance.

Well, guess what? We won the Play section of the competition! Quite unbelievable, eh? I think our juniors must have been pretty pissed off! Unfortunately, because of our "poor" performance in the sporting events, our overall score only managed to get us 2nd place. But we were happy anyway. Nothing beats the euphoria of putting together a successful performance.

Come to think of it, I think the most enjoyable times of med school were actually the extra-curricular activities!