Dear 3rd-year-medical-student-Kathleen-of-the-future,

I just finished reading What I Learned in Medical School, and one of the stories that really stuck out to me was about slowly getting the humanity and sense of self beaten out of you once clinical years start. So I just want to remind you not to let that happen.

You're becoming a doctor to help PEOPLE. Don't forget that. Don't get so caught up in treatments or diagnoses (although those are pretty cool) that you forget there's a patient behind that chart. And I don't know what health care will be like in 3 years, and I know you don't have to worry about who has insurance, etc, as a student, but remember what Nordstrom said during training - treat everyone the same, and don't make assumptions. I think that might apply to patients as well as customers.

More importantly though, don't forget to take time out for yourself. If staying longer at the hospital is "optional", go home at least some of the time. Catch up with old friends, get out of the medical mindset for a bit. Try to maintain some sort of balance, and retain your personal identity. Don't go crazy. Go to a yoga class. Catch up on the news. Watch a movie. Sleep. You can never have too much sleep.

That's it for now. I hope you're having a good time :). Medical school can't be all that bad if you don't let it be, right?

Cheers,

Kathy-as-I'm-applying-to-med-school

Celebrating the Fourth with Lemon Cookies!

Things at work are improving (not that they were ever bad, aside from a sometimes-grumpy coworker). I'm getting the hang of the register and working efficiently. I used to be really impressed by the speed and skill with which tailors and cloth-sellers in india handled cloth, but now I realize that it takes about a week to get pretty good at doing just one thing, and a few weeks to get really fast. I don't really need to think when I work, I just need to pay attention. I guess (and hope) that that's the difference between a real expert like a doctor and a tailor. Although there's not as much of a difference as I once thought - depending on how you look at it, one is just a more complicated skill than the other.

But a good thing that's come out of work is that i now possess the recipe to the amazing lemon cookies we sell. I tried my hand at making them, and they're good, but still not as loose/light as the ones we sell. I have some more dough that I'll bake from frozen (rather than from room temperature) tomorrow for our family bbq. I followed the recipe otherwise, so hopefully that'll make the difference. Pictures from tomorrow...today's are all gone :)

Pulkit's coming to a family event tomorrow for the first time! Took 4 years but we're making progress :)