hmm....

Haven't written in a few days, mainly because I don't really know what to write about. Sometimes I feel like I'm losing myself in this medical world. School small talk gets old, but when my life is engulfed in studying, etc - it's hard not to get caught up in all of this. It is a daily battle for me to remain me and not become a drone of the medical school world. That's not always an easy feat. I realize that this sounds depressing and blown out of proportion - it's not always that bad, but there are days. Days when I cannot wait to get in my car and drive away from campus - it doesn't matter where, just away. I'm sure this is partly due to the massive amount of time that I spend in that crescent shaped building. But soon... soon I won't have to sit in the same lecture hall everyday. I'll get to leave Hershey and see other hospitals and clinics.

Maybe it's spring fever, maybe it's planning for 3rd year, or knowing that soon I have to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. I've got the doctor part figured out - now it's just a minor matter (haha) of decided what field of medicine is right for me. This week is match week for the 4th years. Tomorrow across the country at noon Eastern time 4th year medical students across the country will find out where they will train for the next 3-9 years of their career. It's another day where we don't get to make that important decision ourselves - but someone else does it for us. My understanding of how the match works is that you apply as a 4th year to different residency programs in the specialty you would like to practice. Hopefully you interview at a few of these places. You rank them in order and the residency programs rank all of the people they interviewed. Then the National Residency Match Program does some magic & then *poof* - hopefully you match with somewhere high on your list. If you don't match there are some options that I'm not going to explain here.
I can only imagine that feeling of standing amongst my classmates in 2 years with our envelopes waiting to see the reaction of opening that envelope and finding out our future. The scary part is that it will be here before I know it. All of this that I'm going through now will feel like a blur.

maybe i should just sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride







road trip with mom coming back from San Antonio
hopefully in a few years - I'll be making another trip cross country back to Cali....