Prelude to clerkships

The winter storm that happened Wednesday was pretty incredible - I think we got 12 inches in 24 hours - It was kind of a hassle, but pretty, and didn't involve any ice, so, whatever. I drove in to teach my class.

It did involve a lot of wind. This meant it was impossible to keep the sidewalks around campus clear because the snow would just blow back on immediately. This also meant it was nearly impossible to get into my building which is really tall and next to the lake; there is a force field around it which makes it windier and windier the closer you get. At one point, I stopped walking and was pushed backwards on the ice in the parking lot. Awesome.

Class seems to be going well because it wasn't just me who showed up - 9 of 10 of my enrolled students (minus the one from Milwaukee) and 1 auditor all showed up. I've been getting nice comments about how useful the class is and that makes me feel good. Go me.

I then had to trudge over to the hospital for my very first meeting about going back to medical school clerkships. Basically, they sat us all in a room for an hour and told us 1. don't freak out 2. be professional 3. here's how you select things on the internet

My primary response was: for real? you can't just send us a document on how to do this?

Good thing I brought my knitting.

And I know they can't just send out a document because it is that terrible gifted-kid trap where we'd all just skip the directions because we're sure we know how/when/what to do.

And I got to sit in a room with the 140 people who will be my new best friends next year. They are all, like, 12 years old. They all seem so young - they even were throwing paper airplanes. It's amazing. I know I was 12 years old just 5 years ago, too . . .

And I got to watch the faculty, again, try to orient the students to the sort of career they're getting themselves into. It is a career which overrides your personal life. This is natural to me because I grew up in it. But they had to reiterate again and again; this is mandatory. That means you'll be there. Weddings are not an excuse. If you aren't there, you will not graduate. It's your choice, but you won't graduate.

And then I got to pour over my potential schedules for the next year of my life. I have it down to two, which are very different.

I know the schedule doesn't really matter.