Greatest Love

Its been 1 year in clinics, and I've seen the grim fathers and jittery mothers of my 30 classmates climb into their chairs with both a hint of parental pride and a great deal of human terror. In this course we have to source for our own patients, and who better to cajole into obedience and submission, then flesh and blood.

Not so my mother. While others stoically gripped their seats and surfaced for discrete gasps of air at the spittoon, she had no qualms about punctuating my workspace with cries of: "Ouch. You're so crap! you're so crap! Are you finished?". After she'd finally left, my instructor nodded sympathetically and began elaborating on practitioner medico-legal protection.

Then I told him she was my mom. He bellowed with laughter, patted my shoulder in a most fatherly maaner and walked off. In return for their love, parents really do expect the world of you.