Medical school is filled with stress. A person who doesn't study med will probably think that in Med school, a student doesn't get enough rest and just kills time reading and reading books. People who are not part of this "showbiz" might wonder how in the world a Medical student gets to find time for himself or his friends.
The answer is just simple: proper stress and time management.
During the 2nd sem, when I got to join a new band of friends, little did I know that they are frequent players of a game which has been the bane of my gaming career back in college. They love playing DOTA. DOTA (for those who are from another planet and have no idea on what this is) is a patch game/map/custom game played using Warcraft III: Frozen Throne software. One gets to choose a hero from a myriad of heroes and level up in so many aspects by beating an opponent's hero. Simple as that.
That game wasn't my favorite at all. When I started playing it, my brothers would yell at me and say profanities because I sucked big time. The bad thing about it was I never got to appreciate it very well, even back in college. The only time I started appreciating such game happened a little too late: in Med school.
Because of a lot of stresses in Med, my friends would invite me to play DOTA. As for me, I didn't complain and I just joined and had fun. At first, I really had my share of troubles. What was good was instead of my classmates getting mad at my errors, they just shrugged it off and turned every error into laughter. It made me sense a feeling of appreciation and acceptance, and that's when I really started to love the game. Every time we get to play, I make sure that I don't get frequently killed, but shit happens, and I still get frequented by my better playing friends.
Most of the time, after class or sometimes during breaks, we get to play our hearts out and kick off a lot of Med school stress. A classmate of ours will just text "dota" and the DOTA players will just respond to it (alam na!). From a small number, the band of DOTA boys grew, and more joined and had fun as well. There were moments where we had "special guests," or those who are really good in the game but had barely any time to play because of personal commitments. Most of the time, all of us get to play 4 vs. 4 or 5 vs. 5. After our Psych Finals, we had our 1st 6 vs. 6 match. It was an all-out game, but sure enough we had fun. The number of players never drop too low every time we get to play. As how a usual adage says, "the more, the merrier."
It's funny how DOTA can build friendships and make funny issues. Like what I said a while ago, we started from a small number, until other people who also love the game started playing it as well. Every game, people who come from different barkadas set aside their differences and let some stress off by playing it. This was how a friend of mine coined it, and he said "DOTA brings people together." True enough, it really did. Also, there were times that trash talking became rampant, and hot heads would sometimes prevail over the cool ones. The trash talking isn't taken too seriously, but for me, I get sometimes irked by it, but still keep cool. In fact, it became a source of fun and laughter not just within the circle, but also from other members of our class. Coined terms like "NUNO" really became a laughingstock of sorts. We all laugh at it because it was really funny, and it had its own story. The source of fun didn't just come from the game itself: it also came from comedic trash-talking between people of funny disposition.
What made it more cool is that it changed the lives of most of the players. A classmate of mine, who was notorious for being so quiet and well-known to record lectures and all, started to play with us. He enjoyed every minute of playing, up to the point where our other classmates got pissed and blamed our class pres for the lack of recordings. I couldn't blame him, he's just having the time of his life. He might not be the best player in the group, but at least he gets to blow off some stress steam.
The group was coined "DOTA Boys" by a classmate of ours after quite some time. It's not actually an all-boy group. We have a girl member who we also consider to be a "guy" (kaya boy na din siya. Haha!). From the officially-recognized groups in our class, someone really coined a monicker for such game-loving group. The group, personally, might have made an impact on other people's perspectives. The love for the game doesn't connote any negativity, but instead, promotes friendship, stress management, and sheer happiness.
DOTA really made us forget about the stresses of Med school. The group really used proper time management to kick off any bad vibes from toxic paperwork to voluminous amounts of material to be read. Even though we keep on playing, we still maintained good, acceptable grades.On a personal note, I think I have found people who also share a common ground with me: love for gaming. And really, again, this is the game that brings people together. No doubt about it.
This summer, the DOTA Boys are planning to play as part of closer bonding. Some of the guys want to have a LAN party of sorts, and I can't wait to be a part of it. Summer is the best time to unwind, and everyone is game to relax and forget about Medicine, even for just a short while. I hope it happens. It makes all the Med-related and non-Med-related stress go away, and makes friendships bond closer. We all enjoy and love the game, and the love of the game added to the gung-ho Med students who have a thing for it is really a 1 + 1 = 3 combination: a SYNERGISTIC reaction of sorts.
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