Today’s inane image of the day:
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| [From earlier this week] Albeit beautiful on all of the bare branches around campus… the ice was quite scary to maneuver during my commute to school. |
The summer after M1 is well-known as the “last” moments of true freedom. After this summer, we will be busy with boards, clerkships, residency applications, and ultimately preparing to bear the weight of adding MD to the end of our name. As someone who has always loved filling my warmer months with academically-related or volunteer activities, I know that I could not just sit around and do nothing for 2+ months. But at the same time, I do not foresee applying for the most competitive of residencies and thus do not feel the great need to secure a research position in a particular field. Every summer I’ve ever known has been filled with some kind of need, whether it be classes or research or an internship or community service. But this summer, I have a relatively clean slate to work with.
Beaumont is offering 6 week long internships to us and I applied for one of those. But there are more of us applying than spots so there’s always the chance that I won’t be selected. Furthermore, even with the internship, there’s time to do something else — that’s where I feel lost. I want to do more research into the intersection of technology and medicine. I want to learn more about the business of medicine. I want to volunteer somewhere and actually apply my medical knowledge.
What to do? What to do?
Long time reader, first time commenter (I think?)…
Do something completely off the wall or nothing at all – this is definitely one freedom that I will miss about working full-time. Not having the structure of school scared me at first, and I tried to use work to replace it. Once you learn to let go and just be in the present moment, you find a lot of cool things. You don’t have to be constantly doing something. A lot of yoga and “Yoga and the Quest for the True Self” by Stephen Cope helped me get to this conclusion 🙂
PS – the studio I go to has even given me a “Dr. Yoga” award 😀
@Jordan: You totally commented before. =)
I did the off the wall type thing last year with the road trip! My thoughts for this summer are along the lines of delving into a passion related to medicine that I wouldn’t otherwise be able to. Or maybe I’ll take my social media love to the next level [I think this blog needs a SERIOUS revamp!]. We’ll see, but I definitely appreciate the advice!
[I totally cannot imagine you doing yoga… SAY WHAT?!]
How about mixing traveling with healthcare? I know there are many medical “internships” (more like shadowing experiences) abroad. Depending on the program, they let you do various things, like take H&Ps of patients, etc. That way you can travel and enjoy your summer, but still be in touch with medicine!
@Pikl: That sounds like a wonderful idea… I’ll have to look into those opportunities!
Thanks for the suggestion!