In Honor of...

...Completely blowing my Path test out of its disease-infested waters, I bequeath to my readers the honor of another stream of consciousness post.

The other day before lunch as I was ascending the stairs to take my lunch at our habitual spot, a picnic table outside Stanton Gerber, out of the corner of my eye I saw a man running down the hall, dressed in surgery-colored scrubs and wearing a white coat. It was none other than our own Dr.E, the renowned MD/JD who amused us with his lectures in Physical Exam last year by showing us pictures of his favorite vacation spots and telling us, "Now when you make just as much money as I do, you can go have some fun at these places too." A smirk briefly crossed my face as I assessed the somewhat humorous situation though I suppose we all have those times in our lives when we have to shirk our professional appearances and just let life happen.
Speaking of lunch, you never know what turn the conversation may take. For example, the other day myself and the other three girls (we'll call them L, C, and J for simplicity's sake) were admiring the beautiful day and talking among ourselves and trying to get J to give us some of her heavenly Snickers cake. Somewhere between this admiration and attempt to beg, we all almost simultaneously came to the conclusion that we must have been absolutely batty all of those years when all we could think about was our long-held goals of being physicians. It's actually a ridiculous career if you think about it. We pay tens of thousands of dollars for years to study like mad, lose sleep, read our friends' blogs (ok so maybe we don't read our friends' blogs), dig in dead bodies, and prepare stains of pathologic agents. It's a profession that has an incredibly poor track record; I mean if you had a batting average for each physician in terms of successful diagnoses and cures, they'd immediately throw us all into Little League, maybe even T-ball league, or maybe they just wouldn't even let us play because our record is so awful.
But never fear, your crazy med school nerd's friend, L, came up with a wonderful solution. Somehow, something I said was misheard and "I have to go to an appointment this afternoon," turned into "I have to go to McDonalds soon." This statement in itself if quite amusing since the author of this blog abhors the Golden Arches and would rather go on a forty day diet of raw tuna fish than set foot in such a hovel. After a few more convolutions of our random banter, L decided that I should quit medical school and become Ronald McDonald's female counterpart. I know the publicity and money from commercials would be an incentive, but I had to explain to L that I just don't think that's my type of employment. I mean I know the red poofy hair and big red shoes are quite attractive but c'mon. I'd always have to have a smile plastered on my face. There has to be something wrong with a girl who constantly smiles.
After seeing that L's business venture was plummeting to the abyss of failure it was decided that we are all going to pursue more normal careers like teaching Spanish, being a missionary, or the old standby-a street musician. Then I could have a normal life, right?

In the meantime, this med school nerd has a lot to learn about neurology and microbiology in the next week.

Doesn't it give you great comfort that your future physicians engage in such meaningful discussions? The life of a medical student-you never know what to expect!