As I stubbornly left the A&E this time after signing all the waiver forms etc, narrowly avoiding a HDU admission, I swore to myself a damn personal heartfelt vow.
I shall and will dedicate my life and whatever remaining time I have on this Earth, to ensure that this blind prejudice, judgemental and blatant discrimination against another human being just on the basis that he/she bears a mental illness diagnosis, is publicly made known even right from the very people who supposedly belong within the CARING profession – if I don’t have the time to change the perception and address this through legal and permanent avenues/channels, I WILL AT THE VERY LEAST MAKE THIS A KNOWN-FACT THAT SUCH IS THE MENTALITY OF EVEN HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS.
And if I don’t fight this very prejudice and discrimination, I will be only another hypocrite to the testimonies I have publicly given, and I definitely WILL NOT be doing justice to first, the 2 and 1/2 years spent at Law School and the 12 months at Lincoln’s Inn, especially the people like my mentor Snigdha, Catherine Hills and close friends who rooted for me all the way through Bar School – to finally become a qualified Barrister-At-Law and second, to how hard I pushed myself at my career in this past year to precisely prove this very point – that just because someone has a mental illness diagnosis, yes, it makes them special but NOT INCAPACITATED OR DISABLED. Yes, it is a huge debilitating disadvantage but at the end of the day, I see it as a mere “label” – your life and destined journey still is in the hands of your own making and doing.
If you know me well enough, you will know when I say I WILL FIGHT, I mean every precise inch and sense of that word. And if there is a trait I am proud of which I urge no one to even try to challenge, it is my fiery determination that I will NEVER let rest until I have achieved the exact destination that I have set my eyes on.
Watch out world:
MY NAME IS MEI CHIENG
AND UNAPOLOGETICALLY, THIS IS ME.