Half an hour ago I was walking home from my last "small group learning" session of the semester and I got to thinking. I stood around like I was lost. I didn't know which way I wanted to walk, where I felt like going, or what I wanted to do. It's a Friday night. Class is done for the week. There is a huge party going on tonight, and I don't feel like going. In fact, I never even considered going. Is there something wrong with me?
In fact, I don't think there is anything wrong with me. I've realized that I am perfectly normal: for a med student that is. If I were at home, I'd be looking to go out, have fun, or find something to do. Not here. The thing about med school that has taken a while to get used to (with the hardest simply being away from home) is that it takes a tremendous amount of sacrifice. And I am far from the gleaming, shining example of what a true med student should be doing, but I understand what it takes to get by. My next big exam is a little over a week away, and I'm studying for it like it's tomorrow (except for right now of course, cut me some slack!) In med school, you have to use your weekends to "catch up." Sometimes I wonder if I have learned anything and other times, I feel like I've conquered the most meaningless task. I guess it's about winning the little battles.
For a more interesting and fun take on little battles, I guess I'll discuss my hockey game from last week. We played the team that we had our only loss against on the first game of the semester. We had since beaten them on our only other meeting, and a close game that was. This game, both teams came out determined to win, and a show it was. the second semester team came out hard scoring goals left and right and by the end of the first half, we were down a score of 4-2. My team was a little disappointed but we rallied back and managed to tie the game at 4-4. Late in the game one of their guys had a wide open net, and our defenseman managed to get a stick on the puck just he went to bury the shot, and it went right over the net, and their guy drove hard into the "makeshift" boards consisting of trash cans and a large tarp. He was certain that he scored. Welp, if that didn't cause a discrepancy I don't know what would. In the end, we gave them the goal to avoid the confrontation. With just a few minutes left in the game we tied it again at 5-5. When the time ticked off the clock we had to discuss how a winner would be decided. We concluded that a "first team to score" would decide the winner. My team went back out determined and the going was tough. We played an additional 10 minutes with endless shots, still without a victor. I was exhausted. Our captain Rob had had enough. He hit the pavement to block a shot with his thigh. From his knees, his instinct cleared the puck to the other side of the rink and both teams watched in awe as the puck rolled its way over the line and into the net. We had won. I promise you, it would have been featured on the ESPN highlight reels. We finished the season with a 7-1 record. This weekend is the semifinal game, and next week Friday is the championship game. We expect to see that same team again in the finals, as their only two losses came from us, and our only loss to them.
Having got that excitement and the need to write it down out of my system, it's crunch time. Like I mentioned earlier I have an exam in a little over a week, then 4 days to prepare for the the final. It's a bit scary knowing that I am on the home stretch of my first semester of medical school and the time has really flown by. I hope that in the end I have a decent understanding of this stuff. Wish me luck!
Thanks for reading :-)
Nick
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