See this sweet little girl trying to drink some water? She's getting a bit more than she expected. This is medical school. It's not a difficult metaphor. There's a lot of information, and it's coming very quickly. We'll get there, but let's start off recapping this week at a happier place: Klara's house.Sunday night was the calm before the storm. We capped off our orientation week by elegantly dining together. Andrea R., Sarah P. (+ husband, Michael), and I cooked homemade pizzas at Klara K.'s with her super significant other, Evan. We enjoyed some wine, salad, pizza, and dessert, bantering about annoying premed gunners and Jewish history/tradition. Oh, so grown up these days. We attempted to take advantage of each last moment of freedom before the real first week of medical school began. After day one there would be no turning back; it would be full steam ahead until graduation.
And so at 7:30 am I hopped on the S-bus with my fellow Finley Foresters, found seats in the front section of the auditorium, and primed my laptop for note taking, fully intending to catch every spoken word. I lasted two hours before my brain went into sleep mode. We sat in the lecture hall from 8 am to noon with minimal breaks, followed by another session from 1 to 2 pm. Then it was off to Introduction to Clinical Medicine, two and a half more hours of class. Medical school feels like middle school rather than "physician training:" too much time spent sitting in class, teachers shuffling in and out of prescribed lecture times, and a small, intimate group of students sitting among newly formed cliques. The only difference is we have high-powered laptops that allow us to G-chat and Facebook each other rather than pass tiny paper notes (and the material covered is slightly more advanced).
Thus the beginning of the week was characterized by massive anxiety. After Day #1 I had 55 pages of textbook style lecture material to master, only to be followed up by an additional 43 pages the next day. I was freaking out (just ask Klara K.). On Tuesday morning I heard of a fellow classmate who spent the previous night studying until 1 am... on the first day of school! It seemed that the "everyone should have a life and get along" philosophy was quickly swept underneath the carpet. It was back to our premed days: cut-throat, study-holics who have to have that "A." Boy am I glad it's pass/fail. If you get a 100 or a 70, everyone gets a "P" on that transcript. And rest assured, everyone will get a "P."
As I've gotten into the studying groove (a few hours a day after class), I've also decided that I'm not going to ruin my body, nor my intellectual curiosity in pursuit of a "P." I've gotten back into swimming these past couple weeks, getting in a good 3-4 times a week of enjoyable aerobic workout. I've lifted everyday this week, and played tennis on off days. I challenged Lauriane A. to a few points the other day and it ended in disaster. Hopefully soon we'll be able to trade tennis lessons for swim instruction. I think that's fair. But I've also started a Health Policy Interest Group here at UNC-SOM. Sarah P. and I submitted our proposal earlier this week and we can't wait to start leadership meetings. Our non-partisan group is organizing a lecture panel to inform ourselves and our classmates on the goings-on in today's health reform efforts. Have you read the Bill?
So that's life outside of studying. Looking to next week I'm hosting 12 or so of my friends for an evening at the Condo: baja chipotle grilled chicken with corn on the cob and wine. Then it's an all week event getting ready for our first exam the following Monday.
So grown up.
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