I LOVE Christmas. I love the whole season - the decorations, the cards, the gifts, the parties, the celebrations, the hustle and bustle...I look forward to it every year.
Since no one seems to give out calendars to newborns, we're a 24/7 operation. Which includes holidays - and this year, Christmas Eve was mine. My mom still has a hard time grasping the concept of why everyone needs to take their turn working holidays, but that's a different story.
It might not sound like fun, working on Christmas Eve - and during a blizzard no less - while everyone else is celebrating with their families. But fun or not, yesterday being at work was exactly where I was supposed to be.
Back from a long (and unintended) hiatus, these are my best shots from last week:
There are lots of things that pass.
You pass cars on the road that are going to small. You pass the time. You pass the butter, salt, or pepper. You pass from one stage of life to another.
But few things are more gratifying than passing into the second semester of medical school.
Seriously.
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I thought I knew what I was getting into when I went to medical school. I had been a nurse for several years, I knew faculty at the school I was attending, and I knew lots of physicians. Although strangely enough, very few of the physicians who found out I was going to medical school had much more than a concerned look on their face.
I probably should have paid more attention to that.
Not because I am not happy to be where I am -- on the contrary, I am beyond thrilled to be in medical school. And even more thrilled to have survived the first semester. But now I know why they gave that look. It was much less about not being encouraging and much more the look of "Oh my goodness, I remember what it was like...."
I now completely understand the look.
People say that it doesn't take long for those in medicine to being to discourage those who are thinking about that career path. I can see why -- not because they don't think it's a fantastic path, but because medical school is like nothing words can explain.
The volume of information. The constant stress level. The effort it takes to be around people who are stressed to the max day after day. The feeling like you know absolutely nothing. There are no words that can prepare you for that. You know medical school is going to be tough, but you have no idea that it's going to be the way it is.
Some things no one can tell you, you just have to learn on your own.
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It appears that you can actually blog from your phone...how cool is that?!
It also appears that I am a total dork...
It appears that my last post was forever SIX weeks ago. Ummm...oops.
I've got no excuses...life is busy, and I think that I have be consumed with trying to keep my head above water. I've even had a light week the last week (no studying -- hooray!!) and I still haven't done anything about all my lovely internet friends.
I realize what I am about to say is going to sound absolutely stupid. But medical school is hard. Like really hard. Seriously.
I knew that it was going to be hard. I heard about all the studying, all the information, all the "drinking from a fire hose" metaphors. And they're all true, 100%. But there is all the parts of medical school that people don't tell you -- the stress, the feeling of drowning in information, what it's like to be surrounded by 257 people who are stressed to the max. And mostly, the isolation.
I am incredibly lucky that, already working in healthcare, I have lots of friends who have already done this whole medical school thing. They went, they studied, and they survived to make it to the other side. Which is nice to see, because, hey! Look! Going to medical school doesn't actually kill everyone! But it's better than that -- it's having friends who actually know what you're talking about when you fuss about school. People who look at you with a pitiful expression and groan and say "Ugh. I KNOW."
And they actually do.
It's a new month. I'm not going to say that I'm going to do NaBloPoMo, because I'm not quite that delusional I am becoming more aware of my limits. But I've marked the thousands of google reader posts as read and I am going to start fresh. So get ready to spill -- while I've been buried in books and powerpoint slides and laboring patients, what has the rest of the world been up to?!
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