Time

Hey all!

These past few weeks have been crazy! We just finished out last unit exam on Friday and are now onto two weeks of NBME Shelf Exams and Clinical Skills Exams. We had our last classes this week and our last mandatory class last Friday. (All but a few of our lectures are recorded so that we may choose to watch at home or come in to class.) I cannot believe that soon I will be finished with my second year of medical school! Where has time gone?

My grandmother used to tell me all the time that the days are long, but the years are short. I would nod and tuck it away, but to a kid time seems endless. Medical school is without a doubt showing me how right she was. The individual days have seemed to drag on and on and on. Hours spent in the anatomy lab felt like days. Studying cases made some days feel like years. Yet, suddenly it was over. It was infinite and fleeting all in one.  Second year repeated this pattern. Didn't we just start learning pathology? When did taking a history become so second nature?

As I sat in our final mandatory class, Case-Based Learning if you're wondering, I looked around at my classmates. It was the last time that I would see many of them until fourth year. (We are split into different clinical campuses next year and I am at the smaller of the two. There will be about 40 students at my campus.)  I will miss them. My class has become like a large, dysfunctional family and I wouldn't trade any of them for the world. They are amazingly funny, passionate and caring individuals. I know they will be amazing physicians.

I guess that the point of all of this is just to remind not just you, but me as well, to enjoy this time. Yes. Enjoy your time in the hell that is medical school. It is a completely unique experience. Soak up those late night study sessions. Appreciate the work you put in. Embrace the bonds you are forming with classmates. It will be over before you know it.