I'm back...

It's almost two years since my last post, but lately, I've been feeling the itch for creative expression.

So why the hiatus? In a nutshell, the first two years of medical school were soul crushing for me. I entered medical education uncertain of my career choice, and if that's the case, the first two years of medical education are a leap of faith. You have to inhale reams of medical knowledge, with little regard to context, or understanding of its importance, for countless months on end. It's not terrible challenging from an intellectual standpoint, but it is a trying marathon of knowledge imbibement/regurgitation. All that to say, there wasn't much to write about; it was a rather quotidian existence that offered little creative inspiration, and which would be of little interest to anyone.

Enough about that though. In March of this year, my preclinical studies ended, and I entered the clinical years. During the clinical years (year 3 and 4), medical students transition from book to bedside, and finally join medicine as it takes place in the trenches. You learn how a hospital works, you learn about clinical presentations of disease, you learn how to function as part of a medical team, etc.

During the course of my third year, I will be exposed to 8 major areas of medicine (surgery, internal medicine, neurology, psychiatry, ob/gyn, pediatrics, and family medicine), and countless sub-specialties within each. It is actually a rather unique professional experience; how many professional training programs expose one to such a variety of vocations within one's trade in such a short time? It is akin to speed dating.

And like speed dating, it can be awkward, tiring and entail poor chemistry. But it also offers the promise of lifelong contentment, as the expectation is that you will find the specialty that best fits you.

As time permits, I hope to offer laypersons some insight into this world as I transition into it, before it becomes mundane, and before I become so accustomed to what is really and truly such a foreign territory.