Steef Boekholt BSC, President MFVR
A month ago I began a new adventure together with seven other medical students. During this coming academic year we are the board of the Medical Faculty Association Rotterdam. A year where we will not be studying as we did the years prior. The first question my parents asked me when I told them… ‘What will you be doing that year? Drinking beer?’
A year on the board is much more than just drinks. I would like to tell you about a very special day in September. Saturday, September 25, a day that I will long remember.
On that Saturday the reunion of the first medical students in Rotterdam took place. The 66'ers, as they call themselves, meet each other at an Alumni event every five years. A fantastic initiative.
‘you develop enormously during your time as a student, but the moments spent drinking are also very valuable.’
The day started with a word of welcome from the Dean and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Erasmus University Medical Centre, after which it was my turn to address this group. You can probably imagine that I found it quite exciting to be allowed to speak in front of this audience. Following my presentation, a professor and department head of clinical epidemiology at Harvard University gave a lecture entitled 'aging does not exist'. I can't help but say that I was quite impressed. The story had a strong structure and in addition to impressive content, he spoke with tremendous humor. Although the professor was not able to convince me that aging really does not exist, it did make me understand the importance of epidemiological research and how a successful lecture should be put together.
The day continued with a lecture on geriatrics given by one of the alumni. A field of expertise that is not covered very much during our university years. In our aging society, it is a field that needs more and more attention. Finally, a journalist and former editor-in-chief of Quod Novum, the forerunner of Erasmus Magazine, concluded the day by looking back on his student days. It was nice to see that a lot has changed in 55 years, but that a lot has also stayed the same. In the 'document humaine', in which the alumni collected their personal memories of their student days I read: "...the fun we had at 5 o'clock in the morning, when the world woke-up, and you were swinging in your evening dress along the streets with your girlfriends...". These are the moments that will stay with me when I look back on my student life, 55 years from now.
All in all, for me this was a very special day and a great honor to be part of. It is precisely days like this that make a year on the board really worthwhile. Learning to speak in front of such an impressive audience and hearing the stories of people who have really done something special in their lives, is very valuable. Still, I find the conclusion that the moments when you are swinging in the street at 5 o'clock at night are the ones that will stay with me a very nice paradoxical one. Yes, you develop enormously during your time as a student, but the moments spent drinking are also very valuable. You remember them for at least 55 years.
