Professionalism in Life

What is a professional? This word really got me confused when I learnt English in high school. I have to admit that my English that I can speak listen, and understand at this time was not like that before I was 15. Back then, the Malay youth are facing crisis on English proficiency. So a new education policy had been taken where Science and Mathematics subjects will be teach in English. Surprisingly now there are organisations who tried to reverse the policy. What a fool.

Well, before this I always thought a professional is a person who did medical of doctoral degree. Even when I looked on Wikipedia, the meaning was the same. But I decided to seek second opinion in the form of Merriam-Webster dictionary. Finally I found out that the meaning of professional is simply and activity which a person did for a living. In simple word, professional means a work or action which the person will get paid for doing that work or action. For example professional footballer, professional singer, professional soldier etc.

Thus, I realised that everything we do in this world that we can get paid for it is a professional job. This would means that almost employer in this world are professionals. What are the alternative to them? I would say entrepreneurs, amateurs, retirees, pensioners, unemployed, disabled, mentally-retarded and dead people. But do everybody that finished school prepared to become a professional? Looking at the youth nowadays, I would say no.

I can give an example of myself. Since I was small, I lived with my family. I grew up with my family. In every section of my life, there is a clear target for my future. When I was born, my immediate target is to survive the first few breaths which are the most difficult I've ever experienced to make sure my lungs work properly later. Then I have to start suckling to be able gain nutrient and necessary antibody to accommodate my growth while my immune system set themselves up.

Then when I started to speak, I have to learnt reading. Then I enter kindergarden, where my target was just to play as much as I can before starting school. In primary school, I have to learn all basics of education so I will be ready for UPSR in 6 years time. In middle and high school, I have to learn more advanced education to finally finish my SPM in 5 years time. In the college, I have to get good result in the IB exam and meet the minimum requirement of the university to do medicine. Alhamdulillah, I managed to pass all of those stuff and I'm finally here doing medicine.

Right now I would say that my target is to finish my studies and get a degree in medicine. But what will happen after that? Do I still needs to sit for exams? Can I still spending time playing computer games in my leisure time? Can I still skive off classes if I feel unwell? Can I still expecting the sponsor to send me my money every month for my living expenses? Can I still stays up late at night to chat with friends or watching House? What is the target now?

Most of the answers will be, I can't. A simple reason is whenever I qualified as a doctor, I am a professional. A professional have to do their job with full commitment and dedication to deserve the pay they got. As a doctor, I may be working 9 hours per day with extra on call hours for 2-3 days per week. So a change from a student to a professional is a big paradigm shift. I got to leave my old lifestyle, set up my mind, think like a professionals, and do my job for the money.

So I realised that some of my friends were not able to achieve those paradigm shift. Although they finished school for few years, they still hanging at home, jobless, playing computer games everyday, and basically still depends on their parents for money. Some of them actually started university, but dropped out before they finished it. Why was these things happened? I would say because they do not understand what a professional means. They could not accept the fact that now they are a grown ups who should work for money instead of loitering at home doing nothing.

Perhaps they should question themselves by looking at the other people in the world around their age. Rihanna is 2 years younger than me, and she's already one of the hottest RnB singers around. Lionel Messi is 1 year younger than me, and he is probably making around €80,000 per week by playing football. Lewis Hamilton is only 23 when he became the youngest Fomula 1 World Champion. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook is worth $1.5 billion and was the youngest ever person to be listed in Forbes top400 at the age of 24. They are all professionals.

Thus, I hope that we all realise that being a professional is a step to the next stage of life. With professionalism we could guarantee our finance, so we could start doing other things like starting a family. Hence, being a professional is a clear target for new graduates and jobless people. Also as a Muslim, do not forget that we also have to be professional with Allah. Remember that doing good deeds will increase our value in front of Him and we will finally get the rewards when the time has come.