It dawned on me the other day that I have very few days of actual work left before I walk down the aisle to receive those long sought after initials... M.D.! I heard a couple students say they could not believe how fast the last 4 years have gone by. I am not sure I feel the same. In some manner it is always a little bit of a surprise to arrive at your destination after focusing on the journey for so long, but in this case I feel the four years under my belt, and the 3 years before that spent on pre-med classes and applications. They don't necessarily feel long or short, but feel exactly as they were. I spent my 30's in school, in classrooms, in a suit interviewing and a few of them in hospitals actually learning the skills I sought after. It has been a good investment so far and feels substantial even though it has come at a great cost. Your 30's are an important decade of your life, most of my friends have gotten married, started families, bought houses. They have all moved into areas of their lives I am still struggling to even contemplate starting. Still, this educational process valuable and will provide tangible benefits down the road I hope and I plan on focusing much of my future to rebuilding the life I set aside so many years ago. I started this process years ago, back in 2001, when I made the decision to leave my life in astronomy returned to Seattle with the intention of going to medical school. I was operating the 3.5-m telescope down at Apache Point Observatory while volunteering as an EMT-Intermediate. After a couple years of EMT work I decided medicine was what truly called me; I picked up my life and started over at the ripe age of 31. Since then it has been all school, studying, testing and work towards some delayed gratification.
I am now about to begin one of the last 3 clerkships in medical school, Radiology. This is a half-time clerkship which will allow me to invest significant time back into my own life and health. Mornings will be spent with books, at the gym or wherever I feel I want to spend my time. Some of it will be planning to move in a few months. Some on the internet writing on my blog. The afternoons spent in radiology lectures. The evenings all my own. Bliss.... The next three clerkships are all electives I chose because I felt they were important and interesting rotations that would contribute directly to my future Emergency Medicine residency. After radiology I will be jumping into the fire directly, skipping the fry-pan altogether, as I start the Surgery and Trauma ICU sub-internship at Harborview. It is as demanding and difficult as it sounds but from what other students have told me, it is also one of the most academically rewarding. You learn how to care for the sickest patients there are and come out feeling a little more competant. My final rotation will round off my clerkships as I started with Pediatrics I finish with Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Children's Hospital in Seattle. A good way to revisit and reinforce the pediatric knowledge that seems so distant now already. Pediatric EM ends on May 8th. I graduate on June 6th and the time between is all mine. I plan a vacation of some sort, packing, preparing to move. I will find out on March 16th if I matched into a residency and on March 19th I find out where exactly. This is the outline of the next few months and I hope to have more time to write, so stay tuned.
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