Weird mini-semester
I have to hand it to my school - they found a way to give us a guilt free break (i.e. no studying is possible) for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. They did this by scheduling the semesters so that they both end right before the break. For those of you math geniuses out there, you're probably thinking - "Hey, wait a tick! That means that you are having a semester that is only 3 weeks long!" And you are right - we are now experiencing our 3-week-mini-semester, whereby we are taking only genetics classes in a super-accelerated format until we leave for Christmas break. And I have to say, although I am not crazy about genetics (punnett squares and fruit flies, anyone?), so far it's been a relatively positive experience. Of course, we are all still recovering from our anatomy experiences, so any school day that doesn't involve blunt dissecting skin away from muscle with your own fingers seems like it went pretty well. But even more than that, it's nice to concentrate on just one thing, instead of jumping back and forth between three relatively difficult topics. Last semester, the whole time I would be studying for biochem, I would be thinking that maybe it would be better if I studied anatomy. And no matter whether I studied one or the other, I felt guilty that I almost never study CTS, or heaven forbid, picked up my medical interviewing book to brush up on clinical techniques for my practice of medicine class. Now I can either study or NOT study genetics, and that's the only thing I really have to feel guilty about. And only feeling guilty about one thing is pretty good for me - after all, being a student (especially a medical student) is a study in guilt. As a matter of fact, I think that I should get a Ph.D. in guilt awarded alongside my M.D. when and if I graduate from here. I've certainly been putting in the requisite hours for a complete mastery of the field of guilt, and I could probably write a pretty tidy little dissertation on the topic.
Another thing I've noticed during our mini-semester is that, despite the fact that physically all the students came back from thanksgiving break, mentally I think most of us are still on vacation. No one here is acting quite like themselves, and no one is really applying themselves to what we're learning (everyday I hear my friends say - "I tried to study last night, but I ended up spending 5 hours practicing my signature" or "I wanted to study last night, but intead I made a macrame hanging pot holder". (Incidentally, my excuse was that I was trolling the gossip websites trying to figure out what really happened between Kid Rock and Pam Anderson - how could it have possibly fallen apart????). I think that we forget that medical school can be quite traumatic, and once you get back in touch with the simple joys of life - sleeping until noon, going out to see movies, spending all day in front of the TV, or in general getting to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it - we find it becomes that much harder to jump back in to such a disciplined and regimented schedule. Not to mention that we know we are so close - only 2 1/2 weeks until we get ANOTHER break, this time a whole two weeks long.
So it's back to the grind for me, if only for a little while. Not long before I can be a slacker again, just long enough to start feeling a little guilty about it.
Another thing I've noticed during our mini-semester is that, despite the fact that physically all the students came back from thanksgiving break, mentally I think most of us are still on vacation. No one here is acting quite like themselves, and no one is really applying themselves to what we're learning (everyday I hear my friends say - "I tried to study last night, but I ended up spending 5 hours practicing my signature" or "I wanted to study last night, but intead I made a macrame hanging pot holder". (Incidentally, my excuse was that I was trolling the gossip websites trying to figure out what really happened between Kid Rock and Pam Anderson - how could it have possibly fallen apart????). I think that we forget that medical school can be quite traumatic, and once you get back in touch with the simple joys of life - sleeping until noon, going out to see movies, spending all day in front of the TV, or in general getting to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it - we find it becomes that much harder to jump back in to such a disciplined and regimented schedule. Not to mention that we know we are so close - only 2 1/2 weeks until we get ANOTHER break, this time a whole two weeks long.
So it's back to the grind for me, if only for a little while. Not long before I can be a slacker again, just long enough to start feeling a little guilty about it.
posted by Katie Grouse at 2:58 PM
2 Comments:
The guilt at not studying all the time subsides after the first year of medical school. After that, your learning is more and more on the wards and in the clinics and once the day is over it is over.
You've always been that way about school ever since I have known you. Just use all that guilt and channel it into learning how to be the best doctor you possibly can! Hey are you coming home for christmas?
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