My reasons for not posting as of late: I work 80 hours a week, I have no internet at home, and did I mention that I work 80 hours a week? Yeah, those are lame excuses, I know, but when all you do it work and sleep and maybe watch a few hours of West Wing on DVD in between, there isn't much to blog about.
I have to say that my experiences thus far have been pretty cool and very rewarding. I have delivered many babies, experienced the joy of helping women bring babies into the world, and considered the societal circumstances that make 17 year olds mothers. There have been many long hours, many sleepless nights, and hopefully it's all worth it. It's hard to imagine that it's almost a month in, though. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that I still have 3 years and 11 months of this left - I just don't know how I will have the energy to do anything but sleep and work. Now, I can see how residents have no life.
On that note, I am determined to have a life outside of work, but it's admittedly very hard. Besides the fact that I'm completely spent at the end of everyday and am working random nights and weekends, it's hard to meet people. I have always been in situations where friends were easy to find. From high school to college to medical school, there has always been a network from which I could find friends. Now that I'm "working" (I don't know if I could say that I'm even getting paid - I calculated my hourly pay to be around $4 an hour, at an astounding rate of half the minimum wage in California), there's no network of ready-made friends. Yeah, I can always be friends with people from work, but you have to get over the boundary of seeing them at work, which is effort-free, to making plans outside of work, which is definitely not effort-free. The alternative is to reach out to pre-existing friends, like from high school, college, and medical school. But unless they're a few minutes' drive away, it's really hard to make plans (and if they're also residents, it makes it infinitely harder).
So, now my goal is to find new friends. I don't really have a strategy as of yet on how to do so. I may need to come up with one eventually though, especially if I plan on making friends outside of the medical field, which is a goal of mine.
I have to say that my experiences thus far have been pretty cool and very rewarding. I have delivered many babies, experienced the joy of helping women bring babies into the world, and considered the societal circumstances that make 17 year olds mothers. There have been many long hours, many sleepless nights, and hopefully it's all worth it. It's hard to imagine that it's almost a month in, though. On the other hand, it's hard to imagine that I still have 3 years and 11 months of this left - I just don't know how I will have the energy to do anything but sleep and work. Now, I can see how residents have no life.
On that note, I am determined to have a life outside of work, but it's admittedly very hard. Besides the fact that I'm completely spent at the end of everyday and am working random nights and weekends, it's hard to meet people. I have always been in situations where friends were easy to find. From high school to college to medical school, there has always been a network from which I could find friends. Now that I'm "working" (I don't know if I could say that I'm even getting paid - I calculated my hourly pay to be around $4 an hour, at an astounding rate of half the minimum wage in California), there's no network of ready-made friends. Yeah, I can always be friends with people from work, but you have to get over the boundary of seeing them at work, which is effort-free, to making plans outside of work, which is definitely not effort-free. The alternative is to reach out to pre-existing friends, like from high school, college, and medical school. But unless they're a few minutes' drive away, it's really hard to make plans (and if they're also residents, it makes it infinitely harder).
So, now my goal is to find new friends. I don't really have a strategy as of yet on how to do so. I may need to come up with one eventually though, especially if I plan on making friends outside of the medical field, which is a goal of mine.
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