My Life as a Medical Student: November 2013

Friday, November 22, 2013

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

I swear I'm not bitter...

As my Facebook news feed is filled daily with news of all my friends and their wonderful lives: Relationships, Engagements, Wedding planning, Wedding pictures, Pregnancies, Babies, Vacations and cute little family pics... I'm reminded of exactly what happened to everything in my life that is not closely associated with learning when I was accepted into Medical School...

What Med School has done to my social life...

If you are thinking about going to Medschool let me warn you to think long and hard about the eminent social death that is about to happen. It's quite shocking really. I have these moments when i hate that i never do anything but hang out in the library, but then i think about the job that i'am training for and most if not all of those feeling just fade away. I know that this is where I'm suppose to be, but its hard to see all my friends progressing along the major life milestones without me... I have this stark feeling of lack of accomplishment, even when i'm accomplishing something great. This is important, right? I'm doing something that is going to be worthwhile. I'm not bypassing my prime years behind a stack of very heavy books for nothing.

But it can get frustrating... I think all those folks still in school can agree. I will never have 50 "likes" on a picture of my new stethoscope (50 likes is really easy to get on your wedding, baby or engagement pic), i can't show anyone that i now can in fact see the optic disc through the ophthalmoscope (weeeellll, most times) and no one but my classmates will ever fully understand the pure joy that i have because I got an O on the last test (That is not a typing error; I did mean O as in the letter, from the alphabet).

Medschool is nothing of what i expecting. But this feeling is probably the most unexpected, I should feel accomplished and confident, however often times i'm just left feeling a bit left out/behind, ostracized and forgotten. Yes, I'm still in school. Yes, i'm still living off loans. Yes, i'm still single. Yes, I'm in my mid-twenties. Yes, I still spend the majority of my days in the library. But don't you forget about me, this plan for my life is not finished yet and its gonna be great, wild and full of Christ; in fact, it already is!
I'm not posting this to whine or ask for people to like by post/blog. I'm simply saying that this world (at least some of the circles that i run in) idolizes certain life achievements. But what about those of us that have left the well beaten path to peruse something a little different: A graduate degree, work overseas or something even more different. I'm not saying that you shouldn't share about your life, just give some thought to those who may be leading a little different life too. In short, even if you don't have 50 likes on Facebook and you need someone to like your photo, I will be the first like. Because if you are doing something that excites you, I'm excited too! And if you a celebrating something I want to be celebrating too!

So to all my wonderful friends out there who have exciting happenings going on in your lives, I'm so excited for you. I like it, in fact I LOVE IT! But in all your excitement, don't forget to celebrate the small things with those of us who may not have a life that is as "happen'n" as yours. P and O are exciting too, just take my word for it. ;)

Congrats and all my best!

-G

I have nothing to wear...

I think this everyday... despite the fact that not even all my clothes fit in my closet...

I think i may have a small problem with my perception of my wardrobe options.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

For your own personal knowledge...

As soon as the words "as a side note" or "In my research I'm looking at..." come out of the lecturer's mouth... I'm like:

No thank you, I don't need more information, I am already in information overload here folks. I love it when the lecture adds 3 papers for use to read on our "own time" for our "own personal knowledge and enjoyment". Like i have time to even read my email, I am definitely going to make a point of reading all your research papers on a subject in which i have zero interest.

I do miss having the time to read research papers... Recently i have definitely appreciated the point of abstracts and review articles.