Fancy seeing you again!

I've been away from the blog for a while. First there were away rotations to make a good impression on, then a giant test to study for, then applications to submit, then interviews to attend. The thing about medicine is there's always something that makes you "really busy", something coming up that you can use as an excuse not to do something. The trick is going to be finding a way to do the things that are important to me anyway. And, despite my small number of posts, this blog is important to me.

I mentioned that I'm going on interviews. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, during the fourth and final year of medical school, students must decide what specialty they are going to train in. When we graduate from medical school in May, we will receive our diploma, become doctors, and have the much-worked-for M.D. placed after our names. However, we can't just go out and hang up our shingle and start practicing medicine on patients. No no, first we have to complete a residency. While we do finally get paid during this period (hooray!), we are still under constant supervision and continuing to learn, albeit less than a medical student. We will be known as "residents", and this process could take anywhere from 3 to 7+ years depending on the specialty.

So I'm traveling around the country, interviewing at different residency programs, trying to convince people of why I would make a good doctor and a valuable addition to their institution. It's rather intimidating and exhausting, not to mention I've now developed a surprisingly passionate hatred of people who place both of their carry-on items in the overhead compartments on airline flights. However, it has brought about a great deal of introspection regarding my life and what's important to me. One of the things I find myself talking about time and time again is communication, and my interest in writing naturally comes up as an example of practicing my communication skills.

I do want to be a writer as part of my career. The best way to do that is to write as much as I can and read what other people have written. I need to make it a priority. While interviews may be nerve-wracking, the questions I've been asked have helped me remember experiences during medical school that affected me in different ways. I plan to write about these experiences and other random thoughts in the near future. So, stay tuned! I promise I'm not going anywhere this time.