Saturday, November 22, 2008

Things

So I've had some time to think lately and that's gotten me nowhere with school, but it's let me put some things in perspective.

First, I've decided that people hold onto their angst with every bit the tenacity they hold on to their dreams and hopes. Even though things might not be as bad as they make them out to be, very few people want to be told otherwise. They'd rather have the angst to keep them company than to give it up and look at the flip side of the coin all by their lonesome. I find a lot of my classmates in this position right now. We are an angry group. Overall, at the end of the day we are all angry because we have to work hard to end up as doctors, really not such a bad thing. But don't tell anyone that...

I've also been spending more time working on my project with my old boss JW. We do a lot of waxing philosophical about what it takes to really reach students these days. Why can't students see how intrinsically cool this stuff is and let that be their motivation to soak it all up? We go around and around about it, and what I've decided is that the longer you're a student, the more bitter you get about being taught. Likewise, the longer you're a teacher, the more cynical you get about the mental capacity of those you are teaching. I feel kind of lucky that I get to see these things from opposing perspectives. Now if I can just temper my bitterness with cynicism...wait, that might not be the greatest combination... But in all seriousness, I think if I can remember how great it was to see students who were truly interested in the material for the sake of just being interested, it might help take the edge off that stuff that just doesn't seem too "clinically relevant."

Speaking of working with my old boss, I have some exciting news! He's asked me to not only edit the figures in his electronic text book, but write a chapter. That's right friends, LG is gonna get published. I'm super excited. Did I mention its the reproduction chapter? Yep, Birds and the Bees by LG. Cool. I'm excited to do it because I think the hormones involved are really quite cool and I took a fair amount of graduate course work on the subject, so it's definitely something to look forward to!

And in news of looking forward, I completed my registration for the Untied States Medical Liscensure Exam (aka Step 1 of the boards). Yikes. The countdown begins. April 8th. Lots of beer that night. You're all invited. Yes, it's a Wednesday, yes, you still need to come. But in the event you can't make it, I think we'll be trying to get some sort of party together that following weekend so long as we're not out of town on vacay. Something to keep in mind.

Last night we got to see some friends from the college days when one of my college friends was celebrating the receipt of her MBA! Congratulations KV! It was good to see everyone again, I'm glad we made it. And in honor of KV and her husband C:



SuperMugs says hi.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks Lisa! Great to see you on Friday night, thanks for celebrating with me. If you ever need a "sitter" for Mugsy, Chris has volunteered!-Kathryn

PGYx said...

Congrats re: textbook chapter! When will you finish it? Will it be available somewhere for all to read?

I think (hope) med student anger subsides over time. Seems as though being part of the herd in years 1 & 2 promotes bitterness & anger. Rotations split people up into much smaller groups so there's less potential for a big group of angry folks feeding off of each other's negativity.

PGYx said...

Speaking of boards, I take Step 2 not terribly long after you take Step 1. Your boards countdown clock makes me want to go watch whatever Netflix sent me last week.

Btw, it's a proven fact that anyone who is writing a physio textbook chapter is going to do fabulously well on boards! :-)