Together we go far experience from a study group

three years ago

i had a health issue that needed further

examination

having medical problems in a foreign

country is not

easy especially for someone like me at

that time

a freshman at medical school who didn’t

have

medical knowledge but was a

hypochondriac

who saw any vague symptoms as a sign

of a serious disease believe it or not

at that time due to the lack of

knowledge and misinterpretation

of the leather written in japanese i

diagnosed myself

even with cancer

i still remember that terrible one month

when i almost lost my mind i thought

there was no hope left for me

but fortunately at that time there were

so many people around

who helped me a lot not only by going to

the doctor’s appointments with me

but also by constantly providing me

with a lot of mental support

eventually i got to check up results

back and it turned out that

i was just overthinking and it wasn’t as

serious

as i thought however

looking back at that time i cannot

imagine

how i would have overcome it without the

support of other people

i realized that i had received a lot

from others

and that i should do something to repay

for all the help

that had been given to me and i had a

constant thought that

i should do it quickly because i didn’t

know

what would happen tomorrow what i was

looking for

was an opportunity to do something

now after that an opportunity came

i still remember it it was at the end of

the second trimester

of the first year at that time we were

studying

many basic sciences such as physiology

biochemistry and immunology

all of them were interesting but

challenging at the same time

besides the intricacies of basic

sciences the main challenges

were to study all of them in english

which isn’t

my mother tongue nor the mother tongue

of most of my japanese friends

in december the results were released

and

unfortunately some of my friends had to

retake

more than two subjects and another

challenge was that

the reason were scheduled to be right

after the winter vacation

would mean they had only a little more

than one week

to prepare rather than enjoying the

winter vacation

they had to acquire a large amount of

knowledge

in just a short period and some of them

might have been just as stressed as i

was during the most difficult point

of my life as i mentioned at the

beginning

and first i wondered what could i do

to help them through studying for the

test

myself i realized that to study

and understand a new concept in a

limited amount of time

rather than reading through the textbook

from the beginning

it would be much more time saving to

have it

explained to you from someone who has

studied

before given this i came up with an idea

of creating a group where we were going

to teach

the examiner takers about the important

points

and the points that are likely to be in

the exams

fortunately some of my other friends

offered to help

as well and during the winter vacation

we did our best study together which

resulted

in a positive outcome although we didn’t

have much time to rest

it was still one of the most memorable

and rewarding

winter vacation ever

in retrospect it occurred to me that

although i passed the exams i barely

remember

anything because most of the time i was

just

cramming on a textbook and class

materials at the very

last minute very typical procrastinator

right

but for the study group besides careful

review and preparation we also

had have to use our brains to think our

mouths to talk

and our hands to write in order to

convey the concepts

to the group members moreover

since everyone had their own way of

thinking and studying

by explaining what we understand to the

others we also

able to find out the whole inaudible

our understanding and fill them

with the knowledge of other people

someone said that after two weeks we

tend to remember

just ten percent of what we read is

twenty percent

of what we hear but seventy percent of

what we say

indeed thanks to the study group by

explaining what we’re understanding

to the others we are able to have a

deeper understanding

and remember the knowledge longer

it was such a wow moment for me to

realize the

power of learning by teaching each other

and i was so excited

to continue the study group

at that time after finishing the basic

sciences

we had progressed to the clinical

medicines such as

cardiology pulmonary medicines and

gastroenterology

with another huge amount of knowledge to

acquire

and first i wondered why don’t we study

together

not after someone failed an exam but

before

we take it discussing it with some of my

friends

we thought that studying alone has its

own pros

and studying by ourselves

we have control over study environment

studying scheduled

and we can proceed at our own pace

before a study group we have to adjust

our pace to meet

with the others not to mention the

difficulties

of finding a place and time that will

suit the most people

however even all the benefit of learning

by teaching each other mentioned before

we all agreed that the study group was

worth

a try each person was going to be in

charge

of summarizing several topics

summarizing the points that were

emphasized by the professions

and explaining them to the other group

members using the whiteboard

and gradually more and more friends with

diverse backgrounds

joined us among them there were someone

in their early 20s like me who were

enthusiastic but like life experience

there was someone in their 30s

who had graduated from college with

totally different majors

before something happened and drive them

to enter

a medical school and they were also

someone

even in their 40s and were already

parents but managed to be a student

at the same time during the study group

besides the main purpose

of learning about medicine we got great

opportunities

to listen to the experience of the

others

let me give you some examples

i still remember one time when we

studied about a disease

and a friend taught us what it was like

when she developed that disease

how she managed to overcome it and how

the disease

disease shaped her way of thinking later

on

or another time when we study about

pediatrics

and a friend shared the experience as

well as challenges

a parenthood with us

or another time when we studied about

geriatrics

and a friend who were in his 40s shared

with us

the knowledge about insurance and

service for the elderly

as he experienced through caring for his

parents himself

gradually the social aspects were

brought

into our study through listening to

various experiences

and diverse perspectives we became more

open-minded

more compassionate and more mature

indeed thanks to the study group we got

great opportunities

to cultivate not only knowledge but also

humanity which is essential to become

physicians

however maintaining a study group and

make it work

beneficially for everyone has never been

easy

at some point it were almost impossible

and overwhelming especially when we

became third years and had to study

everything in japanese

which was extremely challenging

especially for international

students like us but somehow

thanks to the mutual support of the

group members we managed

to keep going together until now

and again i wondered what drove us

to move forward together and kept us

going together

until now is it the amazing effect

of learning by teaching each other

or is it the great opportunities to

listen to diverse experience

of course those still do count but then

i realized that there was another factor

that much more important

looking back at the beginning as the

original purpose of the study group

was to give back what i had received

from the

other people when i was in the most

difficult point of my life three years

ago

i was so happy to be able to help

friends who were in need

no matter how challenging it is how much

time it took

and how much effort i had to put in as

long as

i was able to help someone i felt worthy

and satisfied and then my friends

experienced the same feelings of

worthiness and satisfaction

when they in turn offering me a lot of

help

to overcome the language barrier and

carry on the study group

and i realized that in giving

that actually i’m receiving a lot and

giving and receiving is such an amazing

cycle

from which we can get true happiness

and that happiness is the motivation

that drove us

to move forward together

in summary i think all the things i have

said can be best summarized in an

african

proverb if you want to go

fast go alone but if

you want to go far go together

my friends and i together we have

embarked on this long journey to become

physicians

and through the study group by helping

and teaching each other

we will be able to cultivate not only

knowledge

but also find happiness and motivation

to overcome challenges

and move forward to become the best

version

of physicians we can be and make this

world a better place

through improving health and welfare of

our world

community thank you very much