I don't really like telling people that I'm in medicine. My willingness to admit that I'm in medicine is even smaller when the person I'm talking to is new to me. Why? Because people tend to make a big deal out of it. Telling people that I'm in medicine suddenly changes their view of you, and while some people do enjoy this sudden burst of respect, admiration etc. bestowed upon them, I find it fake - how can your opinion of me change so rapidly simply because of a title!? I will then hear (again) about how privileged I am. While this is true, I believe that people don't understand fully why those working in healthcare are privileged. Yes physicians will never go hungry, they'll have a nice car or house, they're respected and they have job security etc. But you can get that with other careers too without doing another 10 years of school, going $100,000 into debt, or losing a lot of sleep.
The greatest privilege in medicine for me is the impact it has on my life. I began a summer elective in rural town (population about 25,000). I spend most of my time in the emergency room (ER) and on my second day working there I realized the beauty and true privilege of being in medicine. The privilege that healthcare workers have is the opportunity to see life in fast forward! In the hospital, I would watch babies being born, I would watch children with injuries, adults with various ailments, and elderly people with all sorts of complaints and an eye for someone to listen to them. It is truly fascinating to watch an entire lifecycle in one working day. However, I have the privilege of listening to all of these patients when they are in need. This truly makes you appreciate life as a whole, especially the days when your health is strong.
Soren Kierkegaard once said "Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.", maybe the privilege of medicine is that we get to peak ahead.
The respirology exam is coming up in 5 days and I havn't reviewed a lot of my notes yet. I have a big faculty meeting in three days and I have to do two reports for that meeting. I haven't touched my assignment yet...and I'm trying to apply for summer electives. Sounds quite busy, and that's why all day I felt stressed..most of my day has already flew by! Then it hit me...we will always have one task after another, we will always have a lot of work, especially in this career. I realized that no matter what level of education we're in, we think our current workload is insane, and we look back at our previous years and laugh at our previous workloads. Who knows how much we 'stressed' in kindergarten.
So what is the solution? I figure one day I'll look back at this exam and this week and I'll laugh at the silliness of it all. So why not laugh at it now! To make things even more cheerful and simple, why not just be happy that we're alive? Life goes by too fast to get stressed and angry. Don't regret. Just live day by day and be thankful for that. Just don't forget your goals, life is boring otherwise!
Sooooo I have a hard time sitting in the same spot studying piles and piles of notes...in all honesty, how can they expect us to cram undergrad into the first 6 weeks of medicine. Oh well, c'est la vie! :)
So being bored and easily distracted, I downloaded Google Earth and what an amazing program it is! I saw Mount Everest, Rome, and then I went back home : Alexandria, Egypt! I found the apartment we lived in, the park I used to play in, the castles we visited, the water front, the beaches and the best part of it is that I found the street where I got hit by a car in..by some doctor. Ah the sweet sweet memories of childhood.
However, it seems the power of procrastination is doing its job again. The strange thing is that the assignment is actually interesting and I feel motivated to do it (not just to get over with) but also because it is a useful learning experience. Yet, I find myself reading the news, chatting on MSN, and now I started to make a blog.
It would be really interesting to know what goes on in our mind when we procrastinate..because there's a part of you that knows what has to be done, yet somehow, that little part of your brain that says 'I'm bored' ends up winning. Moh well! alrighty back to attempting to work again.
