Wednesday, February 23, 2011

What Do You Mean I Have Too Much Fun?

OR "what I actually do when I'm not dodging my studies and taking weekend trips"

I was talking to my mom last night (Happy Birthday again mom!) and she mentioned she really liked my blog, which is one of those wonderful things mothers have to say but it's still nice to hear.

But THEN. She said, "You have too much fun."

To be fair, she certainly would never begrudge me as much fun as I could possibly fit into my life, and was just making the observation that I seem to record mostly the playtime in my life, but it made me think, "Do I have too much fun?"

Somewhere between studying all the time and playing all the time is a balance that has to work. Sometimes I DO worry that I sit too far on the "well-rounded" side of my life and I should scooch myself over to the dead-in-the-eyes over-caffeinated never-without-flashcards-or-notes-even-while-driving, haven't-seen-a-TV-show-in-months, not-sure-if-I'm-still-in-a-relationship scary medical student way of life. Just a bit. Balance is EXTREMELY important to me, but I wonder sometimes if I use it as an excuse just to study less? Less than I should?

It's an ongoing battle.

Point being, I want to record a normal day in my life that is not too much about fun, and looks more like the actual non-slacker mildly knowledgeable medical student I intend to be. And I also want to prove to my mom that it's not all weekend trips up the coast.

5 am: Wake up. I have One Republic's "All the Right Moves" as my alarm song. It's dark at 5 am. Hit snooze once. I really shouldn't do that.
5:30 am: After a slow trip out of bed and a stumble into my running clothes, I made it out of the house for a 3 miler. I felt heavy and slow and blech. I might be getting sick.


6:30 am: Immediately after showering, getting dressed and my devotional, I remembered this:
All the laundry that I'd left to dry in the loft area a couple nights ago. 
So I put all that away and cleaned my room a bit while I was at it. 

6:50 am: Packed up the backpack, and headed down to the kitchen. I have a system, but before it could start, my general feeling of sickness and stiffness warranted this:
Again I have to thank mom for this one. In case you're not familiar with what this furry pink/purple amorphous blob could possibly be, it's one of those heated scented neck wraps. 2 mins in the microwave and it was melting away my pain. 
To the morning checklist:
Hot water on for tea - check. 
Pack lunch and snacks, in a Tinkerbell lunch tin - check. 
  Lunch: TJ's Carrot Ginger soup, Almond butter and jam on a sandwich thin.
  Snacks: 2 carrots, 1 apple, 1 serving cereal.




Make tea: 1 to drink, 1 thermos to go - check.
Make breakfast - check.
  1/2 cup oats, 3/4 cup frozen berries (Rader Farms from Costco), 2 oz. soymilk, 4 oz. water, 10 g agave


Why do I put things in green bowls when I know I'll be taking a picture? I promise it tastes better than it looks. 

Sit down and eat breakfast while studying (ok, sometimes I read magazines instead) - check.
Take multivitamin (I've been forgetting this), finish tea - check.

7:35: Go to school. 

8 am - 11 am: Class. Today we had a Team-based Learning exercise (TBL). I do think I learned. 

11 am: Chapel - only on Wednesdays. Tues/Thurs we have religion classes at 11, Mon/Fri it's just another hour of real lecture. 

12 pm: Eat lunch and study.

1 - 2:30 pm: Pharmacology of hypertension and diuretics case studies/quiz.

2:30 pm - 6:30 pm: Study. I like the Pathology lab for studying. Here's where the magic happens:

6:45 pm: Arrive home. Spend about 15 minutes doing dishes. Took out the recycling.
Empty dishwasher, emptier drying rack. It's the little accomplishments.

7 pm: Heat up dinner, leftovers from a new dish - Orange "Chicken" Quinoa Medley that I made last night. I'm planning a separate post with the recipe. 


7:05 pm: Realize food is far too hot to eat as usual. I'm an liberal microwaver; I'd much rather have to wait for my food to cool down than risk taking a cold bite. Spend a couple minutes reading this:
March Vogue. 

7:10 pm: Take my food up here, and sit down on my bed to write you this post. Somehow get a little distracted...because it's apparently taken me an hour? 
Also, my bed is a piece of memory foam on the floor. It's been this way a couple years...I'm planning to buy a bed really very soon. Expect an update on that. 

8:29 pm: Finish post. Wonder if I've convinced my mother.

(Now I'm getting crazy and speaking of the future)

8:30 pm: Go make some vegan hot chocolate (chocolate mint syrup + hot soymilk)

8:40 pm: Sit down for Study Time Part II - Boards prep.

9:30 pm -ish: Head for bed.

Despite it not seeming like that much time was wasted, I still feel like I haven't fit in enough studying. I wonder if that feeling will ever go away?








1 comment:

sarah (SHU) said...

totally disagree with your mom. med school does not mean 'suffer for 4 years, then suffer for 3+ more during residency'. i had plenty of fun during med school and haven't regretted a single second of it!! work hard but be reasonable. check out cal newport's blog for more thoughts on striking this balance: study hacks

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