The Blog Rounds Christmas Edition: Romance On A Christmas Eve

Christmas is undeniably one of the most romantic days of the year. If one has to perform a task needing the approval of his object, it is best that he schedules this on a Christmas season. Many fights among friends are supposedly resolved on a Christmas day, and many become couples on the occasion of the yuletide. Romantic, indeed.

I am a romance buster, and friends who know me quite well will attest to this; pragmatism is probably part of my first name. But I was not born this way. When I was a lot younger, I was more optimistic, more unguarded, more willing to embrace the world with my bare arms, not knowing that doing so does not sear the skin, but the unsuspecting soul.

I was a doe-eyed medical clerk at one time in my life. We were rotating with the OB-Gynecology department during the holidays on an every other day basis. I was not quite sure what got me to come up to my groupmates and request that I want to go on duty on a Christmas Eve.

Incredulous looks were thrown at me. Why?

My answer: This is my first Christmas in the wards. I want to savor the experience of delivering a baby on the same moment that the Christ was supposedly born eons ago. My groupmates reciprocated with knowing smiles. (They would have probably said "Sucker!" if they liked me less.)

And so I got the schedule that I wanted. As it turned out, there was hardly any romance during that Christmas Eve duty. For one, I delivered a young baby boy not on a 12 midnight, but on 8 am the following day. (Spoiler, that little boy.) Second, there was not much work that time, so all my wretched illusions of covering for my colleagues and "holding the fort", so to speak, on a very important day of the year went down the drain. The reality is, I am just a medical clerk who went on duty on a Christmas Eve.

(Picture of The Nativity from this site.)

But I am not sorry. I may have seemed foolish, but the experience pulled me back to earth. When one is duty-bound, there is no such thing as a special day, not even Christmas, New year, Valentines Day or Easter Sunday. That is how it is; thus it is quite puzzling that big TV networks make a big fuss out of this and feature people who "work even on a Christmas" --- pertaining to policemen, journalists, health workers, among others.

This little incident, as well as many more instances, have turned me into an unromantic person that I am right now. It does not mean, though, that I have totally sworn off romance...

...for if I did, why would I be writing this post in time for Christmas? :P

Merry Christmas, y'all!

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This is my submission to The Blog Rounds Christmas edition, hosted by Dra. Ness (thank you so much.)