#10 - Have dinner with your friends' parents. Saturday night I decided to skip the football game and head over to Klara's house to meet Dr. and Dr. Klein. After the initial meet and greet (and a few glasses of wine), we got into the serious issues of health care reform over steak and fish. The Kleins are much more skeptical of the new reforms, and are rightfully cynical of patients, doctors, and the system itself. I tried to do more listening than talking, as it's much more interesting hearing the stories of seasoned veterans. Their advice: work for awhile and then go change the world. The atmosphere became much lighter after dessert and Wii Sports.#9 - Play tennis with your friends' boyfriends. Klara's boyfriend Evan and I set up weekly tennis outings to take our minds off of medical school (he's applying to matriculate next year). Every Sunday from here on out. First match was brutal; I got my ass handed to me.
#8 - Spend Labor Day in the sun, not the library. Lauren and Jennifer are nearby neighbors here in Finley Forest, and they held a wonderful Labor Day cookout. I didn't have anything to offer, so I brought leftover pasta for myself. Most people chipped in for burgers, macaroni salad, chips, and sodas to celebrate our first med school holiday. We sat on the deck for a few hours, stalling the inevitable.
#7 - Dress up as your favorite patient-type for dinner. After a spectacular meal prepared by our one and only Julia, a few of us dressed up as patients and conducted patient interviews (I know technically this is medical school related, but it doesn't really count because it's clinical. By "not studying" I mean totally avoiding Biochemistry, specifically glycolysis and pharmacogenetics). Lauriane dressed up as a crabby elderly lady, Julia was pregnant, Daniel was a happy go lucky drug dealer with a rash, and Natalie was the prom queen who was just wanted some damn Plan B but she was too young because she skipped three grades. I had just come from swim practice so I wasn't in costume, but I pretended to be a freshman laxer. What I lacked in appearance I made up for in attitude. Lax for life.
#6 - Sleep in. You will be happy and fully rested. Hey, that's what lecture capture is for right?
#5 - Write a constitution for your newly founded student group. That's right. The new Health Policy Interest Group (HPIG) was approved by UNC. We are now an official student group, pending the writing of a "constitution" that creates a written and binding agreement with the University. Sarah and I put a good hour into an outline today. Now we have to clean it up and have it "ratified" by our officers and faculty advisors. Most importantly, I now know what a "quorum" is, and we decided we need 60% of our "executive board" present in order to conduct business. So sophisticated.
#4 - Watch the President get yelled at by idiot Congress-people. Joe Wilson, really? You don't have to agree with the President but show some respect for the office, geeze. This outburst only adds to my sentiment that South Carolina is the outhouse of the United States (sorry Shelley, Furman can only pull the state up by so much). Great speech, although I think this is a perfect time for bipartisanship. Why not open up insurance across state lines and get some serious tort reform? I say add it all into the mix, baby (Duke Vitale, what? Yeah, I'm ready for basketball season already).
#3 - Meet with your advisor and talk about relationships. Not only is Dr. Dreesen the man (well, more like "the woman," but simply awesome), but she has promised to play matchmaker for me. Originally this started out only as helping me meet doctors and improve my resume for residencies, but she seemed genuinely perturbed by the fact that every female in our MS1 class is either married, engaged, or in a life-changing relationship. She's promised to keep her ear to the street and keep me apprised of any potential sugar-mamas out there. Thanks Dr. D. I also met with Dr. Kohn this week, and my name is on his latest paper!
#2 - Start working EMS (again). I interview next week with Parkwood in Durham County. Hopefully 36 hours a month with them will turn this frown upside down.
and...
#1 - Call your mom to vent about your classmates. I had a "why am I here?" moment earlier this week. It's tough when I am surrounded by people who are so excited about glycogen-storage diseases and renal drug elimination, and I'm just sitting here thinking, "Eh, it's okay." I'd rather read the New York Times and wax philosophical about our current reimbursement system. But that's what Moms are for. She told me I'm impatient and that I built up medical school so much that at some point, it's going to be a let-down. Personally I just think Biochemistry sucks. Bring it on Anatomy!
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