Studying for 8 hours and I still feel lucky to be here...

Every other weekend is what we call a quiz weekend.  That means my friends and I spend our Saturdays and Sundays studying at one of our favorite local coffee shops.  Biweekly quizzes forces us to stay on top of the endless amounts of information they present to us every day.  Material which this time includes gastrointestinal bacteria, viruses, and parasites, antibiotic therapies, thyroid function and disease, as well as cholesterol and hyperlipidemia.  All the good stuff that we will see time and time again in practice.  That's why this block is so much more interesting than last block; the material is finally relevant.  We're learning about infectious diseases, diabetes, high cholesterol, hormone imbalance, and how to treat those very same disorders.  I'm finally learning how to be a doctor and that requires hours of hard work.  In order to maintain the study stamina, I need to take effective study breaks.  With my friends, that usually means good food.

Saturday night, my foodie group again got together for dinner.  I don't know if it's the return of the sunny weather, drinking a good cup of coffee, or the great dinner with my friends but I've been thinking about what was said at my recent Healer's Art session.  Healer's Art is a great program offered by my school to make sure we stay connected to the humanistic side of medicine as well as retaining who we are as we go through the acculturation into medicine.  At this particular session we were asked to reflect on three simple statements every day: what surprised us today, what inspired us today, and what touched our hearts today.

What surprised me today was how amazing the dinner was.  On the menu were pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, good beer, and cookie stuffed cookies.  You heard me right, cookie stuffed cookies.  Last night I made these: Here's the link if you want to try them out: http://picky-palate.com/2011/01/06/oreo-stuffed-chocolate-chip-cookies/  Three delicious cookies in one is definitely worth the risk of diabetes.  The next time I bake I am going to try thin mint stuffed chocolate-chocolate chip cookies.

Cookie cheers, from left to right we have Kasey, Claire, Alex and Laura

Today, I needed inspiration to study and I got that from my friends.  Medical school is exhausting.  We are continuously on information overload.  I once heard it explained as trying to take a drink of water from a fire hose and as much as I want to learn everything, it's impossible.  For this next quiz, we have about 10 lectures of microbiology to learn.  If I don't do well on the quiz, it's not that big of a deal; that's the upside to embracing a pass/fail grading system.  However, it's scary that I can't learn all this information because it matters to my future patients.  They tell us the important stuff will come up repeatedly, but for the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm learning stuff that matters.  It's frustrating when I'm tired and don't want to study anymore or all I care about is passing the quiz.  There is no motivation or inspiration there.  That's where the inspiration comes in.  I study with my friends who continuously remind me of what's important and help me get through the craziness of medical school.  Without them, I don't know if I would be able to put in the long hours that I do and stay sane while doing it.  They remind me of why I came here and about what really matters.  It's not the quizzes, the finals, or small group exercises, it's about becoming the kind of doctor I set out to be.  That's inspiring. 

Finally I come to the part about what touched my heart today.  When you spend a day studying, there isn't much to feel warm and fuzzy about.  After a little reflection, I came to realize how lucky I am.  I am at an amazing medical school that cares about its students and training them to be compassionate and effective physicians.  My college friends and family are incredibly supportive and proud of me (another source of inspiration) and I never would have gotten this far without them.  Finally, I don't know how it happened so easily but I found a great group of people at school.  We're all going through the same thing and we help each other get through it; we can talk seriously, laugh at each others jokes, grocery shop together, cuddle up and watch movies, study, and truly enjoy each others company.  Med school is awesome.