Some things…

from the interwebs…

I don’t usually just post links, but there were two things that I just couldn’t pass on sharing, and that seemed somewhat linked.

First, a lovely infographic from the lovelier Ania, a fellow MSTP, about the incredible Ann Arbor. While I’m excited to be heading out of town in a terrifyingly few short weeks, there are definitely things I’ll miss about being here.

Second, an article about deciding whether to go to graduate school. It’s written by a former humanities graduate student, but I think captures a lot of the feelings that I have when students ask me whether they should think about the MSTP or just go to med school or grad school like everyone else. Enjoy it here.

First bike ride of the year!

Cross-posted on Dose of Reality

I spent the last week in San Francisco finding an amazing apartment (although I was not really responsible for the finding… credit where credit is due, Lynn) and noticing the cyclists there. As many of you know, there are hills in San Francisco, and they are not for the faint of heart. Or the faint of leg. Despite the fact that I have been trying to stay on the stationary trainer this winter, I was gripped with a sudden and gripping fear that I would arrive in SF and make a fool of myself on the hills. Arriving home in the 35F with sleet and rain, however, was not helpful. Finally, today was beautiful. It got up to almost 50F, it was sunny, and I got out my bike. I have many friends and colleagues who are much more intense cyclists than I, and even more who were industrious on those few very warm days we had earlier in the year. But today was the day for me, and it was glorious. Thank goodness I made my rank list in the winter!

And then we came to the end…

Cross-posted on Dose of Reality

Believe it or not, my last real day of medical school was Friday. I finished all of my exams for OB/GYN Boot Camp (which was the most fabulous last rotation I could have imagined), and now I just have a month of vacation before I graduate. The phrase “and then we came to the end,” which I used to title this post, is the title of a book by Joshua Ferris that I read a number of years ago, courtesy of the free book room at Borders, if I’m remembering correctly, which chronicles the end of a company as employees are laid off, and moral falls. I keep thinking of it, in relation to medical school, because a few of the characters get a little crazy with the stress of the uncertainty of their fates. I suspect it’s clear why this seems to relevant to my life right now. Despite having checked a number of things off of my list over the past few days (i.e., finish exams, give conference presentation, buy chips and salsa so that Lynn does not go into withdrawal when she comes home today), everything still feels pretty up in the air. As annoying as I find the “Keep Calm & Carry On” memes, that is, in fact, the mantra I keep repeating to myself. Here is a paragraph I posted in 2007, as I was finishing my second year of medical school:

Remember riding on the merry-go-round at the playground when you were little. And you’d hold on so tightly as your parents or friends spun it as fast as they could run, terrified that you’d lose your grip and fly off into the hard ground. Remember how you smiled as you screamed, loving every minute of the terror. And then, remember how gentle it seemed as the merry-go-round slowed to a delicate spin, how calm you felt as your heart slowed, your eyes adjusted to the gently revolving world, no longer a blur. Finally, remember how unsteady your legs felt as you climbed back onto steady ground. Now imagine that the merry-go-round spun until you felt sick - that it wouldn’t stop even when you started crying instead of laughing.

It’s amazing how little has changed, how frequently over the past eight years I’ve felt like I was hanging on for dear life, just hoping it would all slow down soon. Despite the impressively high amplitude of fluctuations between the ebbs and the flows, I’ve loved it, and will certainly be a bit nostalgic as I walk across the stage in another month. For the next few weeks, however, I’ve got a lot of things to catch up on, so, much to my chagrin, I’ll keep calm, and carry on.

Why is it cold again?

I am not handling well the recent drop into the freezing temperatures. It was so nice and warm last week that it just seems cruel to see temperatures in the 20’s now. Fingers crossed this was the last of it, and we won’t have any more snow this year…

Walter agrees.