I’m now halfway through my 3rd year, halfway through med school, and starting the 3rd year of this blog!
(God, time moves fast – I still remember sitting in my bare dorm room, anxiously writing about our M1 orientation.)
And it makes me think. I’ve kept various online blogs since I was in 7th grade – xanga, livejournal – even the requisite Hey-I’m-Backpacking-Through-Europe-and-Have-Poorly-Focused-Pictures-of-Trees travel blog.
Pictured: what my friends and family were subjected to.
And with all of those blogs – whenever I wrote an entry, I always used to look at the calendar side-bar and wonder what the entries over the next several years would be like. Med school wasn’t even remotely in the picture – I thought I’d be majoring in theater, or in the Peace Corps, or a journalist, or possibly living in a cardboard box.
I was always doing something that I couldn’t have predicted the year before (majoring in Swahili, moving my life across the country to volunteer with the Red Cross). So wondering about the future was exciting – sort of like imagining space travel. Everything was totally unknown.
But now that I’ve made it this far, I’m realizing that I don’t have very many of those surprises left. I’ve made my decision about what specialty I’m going into (it was a pretty easy choice!), so I know what I’m doing next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.
… And I’m not gonna lie – that’s a little scary. I’m not going to be in the Peace Corps. I’m not leaving the US for at least 7 years. I’m not going to take an art history class, or learn Spanish, or be in a musical.
… Even though I kind of still want to.
But I’m also not going to have to muddle my way through a hopeless ochem lab, or feel lost in a foreign country,.or take an essay test, or worry about being homeless. And when I start feeling all self-reflective and Quarter-Life-Crisis-y, I just think of this quote:
You’ve got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice.
-Steven D. Woodhull
And I feel better.
Because my pediatric patients make me smile on a regular basis.
And when I remember that, I like where my life is heading.
I really do.
Action Potential 
Wow. This is excellent, and must feel so good to have the certainty of what you want to do and to feel right about your choice. Action Potential, Paediatrician.
It’s a great feeling.
I love reading this blog. It’s like I can feel the joy just oozing from it 🙂 And, as someone in the midst of a mid-life crisis uh I mean career change, I’m stealing the Woodhull quote. Every time I get scared when I think “Can I do this? Is this the right choice?”, I’ll remember it and think “heck yeah it is!”
You’re going to be awesome. I can’t wait to read more about your journey.
So exciting 🙂 I also still kind of want to do those other things one gives up to study medicine.
Keep up the good work.