Maktoobi

Fate. Fate is written they say. It is already written. El Maktoob is the Arabic word for "the written". Your maktoob means your fate.

It is strange how some important events happen so suddenly, so spontaneously, without significant planning.

Taking the step of choosing psychiatry as a career was never planned in spite of my obvious liking for this specialty. It was in 2004 when I was still a rotator resident doctor in internal medicine. A colleague told me that he would chose psychiatry as a specialty. I told him that I won't chose psychiatry because of the low income of such a specialty and because of the troubled neglected patients I might met daily. I told him that I would choose internal medicine. We were in Al Hilla/ Babylon. When I want back home I went to the Iraqi Board of Medical Specialties building and stood in the line of doctors, in the row, and when my turn came, the secretary raised her head from the table she was sitting behind and just looked at me, I said 2 things, my name, followed by one second of contemplation by the word "psychiatry". She wrote my name with the word "psychiatry" below it in a file in front of her.

I went back home. I went to Hilla again to find my colleague who surprised me that he changed his mind and would like to chose another career (later he came again to choose psychiatry next year). I surprised him by my step of going and registering myself there. After few weeks I entered the exam with other 9 colleagues and all of us were accepted as students in the Iraqi Board of Medical Specialization studying psychiatry.

Another important event in my life was so spontaneous and seemed as if written before it happen. It was in 2006 when I was in Mosul. I had many nice kind colleagues. But their life was difficult because of the unstable situation of Mosul. They went home early in the afternoon and I stay alone in the ward. I felt so lonely. One day, I decided the I must go to the internet café and spent time. I usually go to the internet café to search for something and not to spent time. I usually go to the internet café having a goal. I went. Opened the yahoo chat window and to my surprise I chose the "Parneting Room". Why did I do that? Why Parenting? What I was thinking about? I was thinking about nothing…I was driven by my maktoob… I entered the room and met a person who taught me friendship like nobody else did before....I never thought that chatting via the internet can affect someone like it did to me....