  urlLink urlLink Find out. Image (c) Michelle Au ( urlLink ScutMonkey ) Christ, not a month out of school and I've already resorted to writing blogs about being a med student. Were it not for the fact that I am unemployed (til Monday) and addicted to playing with this evil, evil, EVIL blog that has probably had the effect of lowering my exam scores collectively by about 503.5 points, rest assured I would not be writing about things as dull as medical school, but rather exciting things like being back on Cape Cod for the summer (hooray! ) and going to the beach and eating Four Seas ice cream!!! But I've already posted pictures of and written about all of the aforementioned, so I must resort back to my once-routine-and-soon-to-be-that-way-again lifestyle. And seeing that the three people who actually read this blog are either in medical school or grad school (you know who you are...), they can at least understand and identify with my funny albeit strange sense of humor.
(For more of that, check out my urlLink Post-It art , artfully drawn and inspired by procrastination. ) Anyway, Brett (excuse me, 'Rhett'), the 2004 recipient of the 'Most Likely To Not Be Able To Say Breast Without Laughing' Award, already knows what type of med student he is. And though I walked away (almost) prizeless from this year's Teacher Appreciation Awards and Student Superlatives ceremony, I can safely say that I, too, am 'the Twelve-Year old. ' (This may explain why Team Brett & Alison won the 'Cutest Couple' award, second only to Patrick and Curtis. ) But seriously. My philosophy (as a survivor of year I) is that you must have a sense of humor if you are to survive anything, including medical school.
And even if it means laughing at words like "schizont" (much to the confusion of poor Dr. Courtney) or even being as brash and outright disgusting as Dr. McAllister and her Spinburkitt index ("Never date a gynecologist girls. Don't do it. StAR is *not* an enzyme..."), then so be it. There are others less fortunate than we, however, who sadly are not endowed with the ability to laugh at pretty much anything (including themselves). I used to be the 'Painfully Enthusiastic' med student, but that was before I cleaned up after a man who drank himself into a seizure and suffered the unpleasant side effects of simultaneous regurgitation and defecation. (God bless whoever is excited to take on that one. ) I hope I don't turn out to be 'the Crier' or 'the Perpetually Enraged.
' My sweet disposition naturally inclines me towards being cheerful and accomodating (I can hear my father laughing in the background...), so I feel confident that even if I did opt to pursue something like, say, a cardiothoracic surgical subspecialty, I would not turn into a PMS-enraged bitch (who is holding a razor-sharp scalpel and someone's beating heart in my sterile-gloved hands). No. Instead I strive to achieve my goals with grace and dignity, to become a physician worthy of what we swore in the Hippocratic Oath, all of which is very important and very, well.... Hippocratic.
But I also believe in the importance of not taking yourself too seriously. Dedication and diligence will steer you along the road towards success, but enthusiasm, happiness, and good humor will give you the energy to see it through to the end. "The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused. " ~ Shirley MacLaine Amen, sister. 
