When you think about it, school is like a time capsule. The world tends to pass you by while you are in it and there is nothing you can do about it.
I noticed this for the first time when I was in college, one moment it was orientation week and the next it was Halloween. Before I knew it, the facebook invites for the various Halloween parties were waiting for me. (This was also when I found out what "appropriate" attire for college girls was at Halloween parties, but that's the topic for another post) This did not shock me too much because the first semester of college was pretty much a haze for me due to too much fun/not enough studying. Now I was aware of the lapses in time that seem to occur in college and when winter break showed up without any mention of thanksgiving in the middle, I was ready for it.
So what? What if time does fly by, is it really that big a deal? In the real world it probably wouldn't be but such is not the case in the bubble of school. In the real world, events happen that tend to be of great importance to the populace. This is known as "news." College kids, especially those that are dorming, have no need for such trivial information. If it doesn't pertain to that upcoming kegger or the next exam (maybe), then it doesn't really matter. Besides you need either an Internet connection or a TV to get the news and yours are too busy being used for facebook or Call of Duty.
I know, I know, you think I'm exaggerating this. Maybe, but not by much. For proof I submit to you this embarrassing but very true series of facts. On August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina landed in Louisiana and proceeded to wreak havoc on the citizens of the Bayou state in a manner unseen before, or since, in hurricane history. I heard about it due to the hurricane relief concert where Kanye West famously called out President Bush for "hating black people." I did not watch the concert (which aired on September 2). In fact I was unaware of the full extent of the damage caused by the hurricane until somewhere around the end of September when I went home for the first time. My sister picked me up from my dorm and we drove home and along the way we stopped for gas and I noticed that it was $3/gallon. When I had moved into my dorm a month ago, it had been $2.30/gallon. I asked my sister why the crazy jump in prices and she looked at me like I was a moron and explained quite clearly that the hurricane had cause gas prises to skyrocket. When we got home that day I went online and saw the Kanye clip and read the news reports of the damage. It took me a full month to realize that a MASSIVE natural disaster had occurred in our country. A month! And I was not alone.
That is the power of the bubble of school, it shuts out the outside world almost completely. Couple with that the already latent ability of school to speed up time and now you have a time capsule.
Unfortunately that was back in college and since you are reading this blog, you know that those days are already behind me. In medical school the time travel effect gets multiplied by a dizzying amount and time just flies by. Furthermore, because of the massive amount of work that you are doing, the bubble is extremely strong and even less of the outside world gets in to you. As a result you have a very very powerful time capsule and before you know it, the world leaves you behind.
I found out the effects of this not too long ago when I found out that my college roommate was engaged. That news in an of itself did not really shock me, he had been with his fiance since long before college had started and I was expecting the news at some point. No the actual shock came later on that day when I thought about all of the marital/life events that had occurred in my friends' lives in the short time that I was in medical school. To date now: numerous people in my high school class have gotten married AND had kids, some really great friends of mine from college have gotten married AND have had kids, and even some the newest friends that I made in medical school have gotten engaged/married in the past year and a half. Meanwhile whats new in my life? Absolutely nothing, in fact if you swap in August, 2009 for December, 2010 you will find exactly the same person.
That sucks.
Clearly the world is moving on without me and will continue to do so until I leave this super powerful time capsule, and even then who knows. All I know is that I want out of this perpetual cycle of study/exam/party. I would love for someone/thing new to come along and change this up for me. Until then I will forever remain the slightly chubby nerd who spends his free time reading Discworld. Hmmm...maybe its not that bad...
Life, Medical School, and whether the two can actually coexist
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
The one where thanks are given
I love thanksgiving. It is perhaps one of the only holidays in this country that isn't owned by commercialism. There are no turkey conglomerates that bombard you with repeated commercials to buy buy buy! And theres no such thing as legions of sweet potato farmers bombarding your mailbox with "kind reminders." Instead all we see are reminders to drive safe and to get to the airport early. Thats it. Its simple and beautiful. A time to enjoy the company of family and friends. To catch up with those with whom you've lost touch and to spend more time with those who you truly love.
I suppose these days my family is spread out a little bit. All of the cousins are still in the St. Louis area so we rarely get to spend extended quality time with them. More importantly however, the three kids in the Moin/Zahiruddin household are dispersed across the tristate area. Khatija is still out in the boondocks of Erie, PA where she is living (and really enjoying) the hick life. Baji is living it up in the only city that matters, not quite so far from home but far enough that we don't see her that often. Lastly we have me, living at home but barely there because of the self-imposed exile that medical school seems to put on everybody. Realistically, we all aren't far from home but there's rarely a stretch when all of us are home together for any decent amount of time. This is why thanksgiving is so wonderful, its basically a mandate by the nation to go home and spend time with your better sides.
Yesterday as we sat down to dinner I had a chance to recollect how far this family has come in two years. Thanksgiving 2008 was somewhat of a transition period and there were some serious growing pains to be had. Baba was still recovering from his heart surgery but his progress was going really well so we were more and more thankful as the year went on. Baji was in the middle of her interview process for residency and was driving us crazy with her ramblings of nervousness. Khatija was getting ready for her USMLEs and according to her the world was going to end soon. Ammi was doing well at work and maintaining her status as the rock that holds this family together. Finally, I was hating my job as a car salesman and looking forward to starting medical school in 2009.
Two years have passed and somehow life has both gotten better and more hectic. Baba has fully recovered and is spending his days in well deserved retirement. Ammi continues to be the rock of this family and is most definitely the reason for any amount of success present in our family. Baji is doing splendid in her residency program and brags about it to anyone who will listen. Khatija is exactly where Baji was two years ago, interviewing and driving the rest of us insane with her worries and fears (mostly unfounded ones at that). I on the otherhand have switched places with Khatija and am starting the process of USMLE studying.
On the surface it doesn't seem like much has changed but in between the details there is some intense growth occurring in our family. In two more years Khatija will be living it up in the middle of her ER residency, Baji will be thriving in fellowship, and I will be driving the family crazy with my ramblings of interviews. Ammi will still be the rock that holds this family together while Baba grumbles and mumbles in the background because he still doesn't know how to express happiness.
This look at the past, present, and future of my family highlights the one constant that has held us together for years and years: Mrs. Asma Moin. My mother is the single greatest treasure that this family has and without her the accomplishments of her children would mean nothing. Day after day she gets up and does the work of 50 people to ensure that this family runs smoothly and I don't think even she realizes how important she is. At a time in the year where we are supposed to give thanks to all that is good in our lives, I choose to give thanks to the one responsible for all the good in the lives of my sisters and I.
Thank you Ammi, you are the single most beautiful, kindest, and thoughtful person that Allah has ever created. Without you Baji, Khatija, and I would be nothing and we know it.
There is a very wonderful story from in Islam in which a man goes to the Prophet (PBUH) and complains about the pains that his mother is causing him. The Prophet (PBUH) calmly explained to the man that if he were to add up all the moments of pain and grief that he has experienced in his life they would still not add up to equal even one second of the pain that his mother felt during labor.
With that I end this post and remind all of you to hug and kiss your mothers because truly without them, there would be nothing to ever be thankful for.
I suppose these days my family is spread out a little bit. All of the cousins are still in the St. Louis area so we rarely get to spend extended quality time with them. More importantly however, the three kids in the Moin/Zahiruddin household are dispersed across the tristate area. Khatija is still out in the boondocks of Erie, PA where she is living (and really enjoying) the hick life. Baji is living it up in the only city that matters, not quite so far from home but far enough that we don't see her that often. Lastly we have me, living at home but barely there because of the self-imposed exile that medical school seems to put on everybody. Realistically, we all aren't far from home but there's rarely a stretch when all of us are home together for any decent amount of time. This is why thanksgiving is so wonderful, its basically a mandate by the nation to go home and spend time with your better sides.
Yesterday as we sat down to dinner I had a chance to recollect how far this family has come in two years. Thanksgiving 2008 was somewhat of a transition period and there were some serious growing pains to be had. Baba was still recovering from his heart surgery but his progress was going really well so we were more and more thankful as the year went on. Baji was in the middle of her interview process for residency and was driving us crazy with her ramblings of nervousness. Khatija was getting ready for her USMLEs and according to her the world was going to end soon. Ammi was doing well at work and maintaining her status as the rock that holds this family together. Finally, I was hating my job as a car salesman and looking forward to starting medical school in 2009.
Two years have passed and somehow life has both gotten better and more hectic. Baba has fully recovered and is spending his days in well deserved retirement. Ammi continues to be the rock of this family and is most definitely the reason for any amount of success present in our family. Baji is doing splendid in her residency program and brags about it to anyone who will listen. Khatija is exactly where Baji was two years ago, interviewing and driving the rest of us insane with her worries and fears (mostly unfounded ones at that). I on the otherhand have switched places with Khatija and am starting the process of USMLE studying.
On the surface it doesn't seem like much has changed but in between the details there is some intense growth occurring in our family. In two more years Khatija will be living it up in the middle of her ER residency, Baji will be thriving in fellowship, and I will be driving the family crazy with my ramblings of interviews. Ammi will still be the rock that holds this family together while Baba grumbles and mumbles in the background because he still doesn't know how to express happiness.
This look at the past, present, and future of my family highlights the one constant that has held us together for years and years: Mrs. Asma Moin. My mother is the single greatest treasure that this family has and without her the accomplishments of her children would mean nothing. Day after day she gets up and does the work of 50 people to ensure that this family runs smoothly and I don't think even she realizes how important she is. At a time in the year where we are supposed to give thanks to all that is good in our lives, I choose to give thanks to the one responsible for all the good in the lives of my sisters and I.
Thank you Ammi, you are the single most beautiful, kindest, and thoughtful person that Allah has ever created. Without you Baji, Khatija, and I would be nothing and we know it.
There is a very wonderful story from in Islam in which a man goes to the Prophet (PBUH) and complains about the pains that his mother is causing him. The Prophet (PBUH) calmly explained to the man that if he were to add up all the moments of pain and grief that he has experienced in his life they would still not add up to equal even one second of the pain that his mother felt during labor.
With that I end this post and remind all of you to hug and kiss your mothers because truly without them, there would be nothing to ever be thankful for.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The one with failure
I always find myself impressed with the strength and beauty of the human spirit. Day in and day out we are faced with monumental tasks that may or not be possible to complete yet as a species humans do not back down. There is something about the human spirit that powers us to keep going no matter what. Now don't get me wrong, I am not talking about performing brain surgery or saving the world. However if a task means enough to somebody then it might as well be brain surgery. For example if the difference between paying rent on time and being homeless is fetching somebody's dry cleaning on time then getting that dry cleaning will be the single most important thing that they have done in their life. And you better believe that no matter what obstacles come between me and getting the job done, there will be no point during the day when I will think about quitting. Isn't that strange?
I have always wondered why it is that we do this. If something seems too hard, why not just give up? It would surely be a lot easier than trying. Failure isn't that bad, besides another opportunity will surely show up...right?
I really did think about this over and over and over, trying to figure out why most people just keep trying over and over and over. Refusing to give up even when it seems like there is no chance to succeed. Then it hit me...failure isn't that scary.
Hear me out on this. I remember the first time I went ice skating, it was terrifying. Its literally hours of just trying to stay upright and hoping and praying you don't fall. Falling hurts...a lot. On that first outing all I kept seeing over and over was the people falling around me. The thuds and the screams coming from these people was enough to convince me that falling was something that I did not want to do. So much so that all I focused on at the beginning was not falling and as expected it ended up making the skating process quite hard. Imagine a ginger bread man trying to walk...yea. Eventually the first fall did come and it hurt, quite a bit. But you know what, it hurt a lot less than I thought and after that I stopped being scared of falling. From that point on I was basically fearless on the ice and a billion or so falls later I am semi decent on ice.
Moral of the story? Falling isn't as bad as it originally seems and once that first fall comes it opens numerous doors. In that same way, failure isn't as bad as it seems. Originally the thought might be terrifying because good lord, its failure! But once we taste the bitterness of failure it slowly conditions us to look beyond the failure. We never want to experience failure again but the first taste makes us realize that failure will happen sometimes regardless of what we do. In that it offers some simple guidance because failure is sometimes inevitable.
So there we are, failure isn't that bad a prospect. But then why do we keep trying over and over to succeed, always refusing to give up? Simple, failure might be inevitable but who knows when the next chance at success will come? Lets go back to the original example where I need to pick up dry cleaning to make rent. If I fail at my task then in the short term I lose my job and perhaps I cant make rent. That sucks but I'll live, maybe I can talk with my landlord. What's really terrifying is the uncertainty about my job prospects. If I don't get that dry cleaning, I lose my job. My J O B! Who knows when the next job will be? That my dear friends is uncertainty. The prospect of immediate failure is never that bad, its the uncertainty of what comes next that propels us. It makes us do superhuman feats.
Failure is good, it allows us to learn. Whats more, it allows us to stay away from the uncertainties that come afterwards. This is the essence of the human spirit. We will face adversity, we will face certain failure head on because we have been conditioned to do so. From the smallest child to the strongest woman this is true. We do this because failure is something we can understand. But uncertainty is incomprehensible. And we will do whatever we can to keep it at bay.
I have never been scared of failure because I know the taste of it and have learned to accept it. What I can't accept is not knowing what comes next if I fail. If you've read this post up to this point please understand the difference between the two concepts. One I can walk away from , the other will take me kicking and screaming. Maybe I'll be able to keep that beast away until the day I die of old age surrounded by the people I love.
I have always wondered why it is that we do this. If something seems too hard, why not just give up? It would surely be a lot easier than trying. Failure isn't that bad, besides another opportunity will surely show up...right?
I really did think about this over and over and over, trying to figure out why most people just keep trying over and over and over. Refusing to give up even when it seems like there is no chance to succeed. Then it hit me...failure isn't that scary.
Hear me out on this. I remember the first time I went ice skating, it was terrifying. Its literally hours of just trying to stay upright and hoping and praying you don't fall. Falling hurts...a lot. On that first outing all I kept seeing over and over was the people falling around me. The thuds and the screams coming from these people was enough to convince me that falling was something that I did not want to do. So much so that all I focused on at the beginning was not falling and as expected it ended up making the skating process quite hard. Imagine a ginger bread man trying to walk...yea. Eventually the first fall did come and it hurt, quite a bit. But you know what, it hurt a lot less than I thought and after that I stopped being scared of falling. From that point on I was basically fearless on the ice and a billion or so falls later I am semi decent on ice.
Moral of the story? Falling isn't as bad as it originally seems and once that first fall comes it opens numerous doors. In that same way, failure isn't as bad as it seems. Originally the thought might be terrifying because good lord, its failure! But once we taste the bitterness of failure it slowly conditions us to look beyond the failure. We never want to experience failure again but the first taste makes us realize that failure will happen sometimes regardless of what we do. In that it offers some simple guidance because failure is sometimes inevitable.
So there we are, failure isn't that bad a prospect. But then why do we keep trying over and over to succeed, always refusing to give up? Simple, failure might be inevitable but who knows when the next chance at success will come? Lets go back to the original example where I need to pick up dry cleaning to make rent. If I fail at my task then in the short term I lose my job and perhaps I cant make rent. That sucks but I'll live, maybe I can talk with my landlord. What's really terrifying is the uncertainty about my job prospects. If I don't get that dry cleaning, I lose my job. My J O B! Who knows when the next job will be? That my dear friends is uncertainty. The prospect of immediate failure is never that bad, its the uncertainty of what comes next that propels us. It makes us do superhuman feats.
Failure is good, it allows us to learn. Whats more, it allows us to stay away from the uncertainties that come afterwards. This is the essence of the human spirit. We will face adversity, we will face certain failure head on because we have been conditioned to do so. From the smallest child to the strongest woman this is true. We do this because failure is something we can understand. But uncertainty is incomprehensible. And we will do whatever we can to keep it at bay.
I have never been scared of failure because I know the taste of it and have learned to accept it. What I can't accept is not knowing what comes next if I fail. If you've read this post up to this point please understand the difference between the two concepts. One I can walk away from , the other will take me kicking and screaming. Maybe I'll be able to keep that beast away until the day I die of old age surrounded by the people I love.
Monday, February 22, 2010
The one with tophi on a saturday morning
My preceptor is a family physician in a suburban-ish town about 20 minutes from my house. I usually go in to work with him on tuesday afternoons. For the most part I am his bitch and he is my pimp. He tells me to do stuff and I try to get it done properly, lest the wrath of Dr. Randy descend on me. I'm making it sound worse than it is, in reality Dr. Randy is an awesome person and I learn a ton at his practice. I have seen/done more procedures with him that I would have ever thought possible at a family clinic. The only problem I have with Dr. Randy is that since I go in on Tuesday's, there are only so many patients I get to see a week. Tuesdays are not really busy days, especially from 2-5 pm. So to change this up I decided to try going to preceptor on a saturday morning a couple weeks ago.
Holy crap.
As I walked in that morning Debby (head nurse at the clinic) ran up to me with a very excited hop in her step. "I'm really glad you came in today, you're gonna love looking at Frank." Frank as it turned out was a patient with some VERY advanced gout. Gout is a condition where uric acid crystals start to become deposited within your joints. This means that you get swelling around all of your joints because they start to fill up with these crystals and become whats known as "tophi." As a result you get gouty arthritis, it is painful to say the least. Now gout is a condition that is very treatable and with diet and medication it can be kept under control.
Frank's gout was definately NOT in control.
My first reaction when I saw him was "HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!" followed quite closely by "I'm gonna throw up." Imagine if you will a baseball, now put a baseball each on your elbows, neck, and knee. Add to that some seepage of white tophi fluid from said baseballs. Finish it off with little ping pong balls of seeping tophi fluid on the ears and eyebrows. That was Frank and this is what happens when gout gets really really out of control.
Dr. Randy told me that most physicians see this type of gout perhaps once in their career because it is so rare. The reason for it is simple, most people seek out help lonnnnng before gout gets this bad.
After seeing my reaction to Frank, which was mostly mental since the only physical reaction I had was a widening of the eyes, Dr. Randy decided that I should spend some time alone with frank getting his history. This was a pointless endeavor because they already had his history, but because I saw that Mr. Miyagi look in Dr. Randy's eyes I decided to suck it up and let the wax on wax off begin.
Frank was actually a pretty cool guy. He started talking to me as soon as I was alone with him and gave me the full breakdown of his current gouty condition. Frank was diagnosed with his gout by Dr. Randy about fifteen years ago. With the help of his wife he had been able to keep it in check without any flares of gouty arthritis. Frank's wife passed away about four years ago and ever since then he has been in depression. The depression wasn't what you might think it was. He was still the jovial person he normally is, he just stopped taking care of himself. It started small with skipping meds everynow and then until finally he quit on that altogether. Some time passed and without realizing it his gout had flared up to the stage where he was today. I asked him how he was able to bear the pain for so long without realizing the severity of it, but Frank was a 'Nam vet who was already used to dealing with massive amounts of paint. Thus his pain threshold was drastically higher than most peoples'.
What actually caused Frank to snap out of this depression was when he realized that all of his friends were no longer stopping by to visit and they were starting to shy away from him in public. This did not bode well for Frank because I imagine that like me he lives to entertain and be the life of the party. In this manner Frank found himself at Dr. Randy's that morning looking for a way out of his condition.
I was dumbfounded by Frank's story because it was completely unexpected. For the most part when you see someone with an illness, you tend to separate them from normal society and begin to treat them differently. This is what is known as "disease." It is a social condition, not a medical one. Illness can be treated, disease cannot because it is equal parts social as it is physical. The most debilitating part about disease is that once we associate somebody with it, they become just another statistic. We forget that they are people as well and that their lives have meaning.Dr. Randy was treating him with an IV dosage of medicine and I was in charge of monitoring his status; this worked out really well for me and over the course of the morning Frank continued to tell me about the ins and outs of his life.
I left Dr. Randy's clinic that morning with a newfound appreciation for medicine because not only does it help us cure an illness, it can help us begin the fight against disease. Frank showed me that just because a person might look grotesque, it does not mean that we should shun them. The treatment of disease begins by overcoming the mental barriers that society puts AGAINST helping the diseased. Once you start to peel back the layers of the patient, it becomes apparent that they are just another person with an illness. As people in the medical profession, it is our duty to go out and overcome these barriers so that we may better help out patients.
I have seen Frank a few more times since that first encounter and I am pleased to say that he is looking drastically better. His baseball tophi are now ping pong balls and the ping pong balls are now peas. His friends have started coming over again and he has confided that this turn of events is what is keeping him on his medication now. Frank no longer has a disease, he is merely ill.
PS: I have obviously changed the names of everyone involved. HIPAA bitches!
Holy crap.
As I walked in that morning Debby (head nurse at the clinic) ran up to me with a very excited hop in her step. "I'm really glad you came in today, you're gonna love looking at Frank." Frank as it turned out was a patient with some VERY advanced gout. Gout is a condition where uric acid crystals start to become deposited within your joints. This means that you get swelling around all of your joints because they start to fill up with these crystals and become whats known as "tophi." As a result you get gouty arthritis, it is painful to say the least. Now gout is a condition that is very treatable and with diet and medication it can be kept under control.
Frank's gout was definately NOT in control.
My first reaction when I saw him was "HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!" followed quite closely by "I'm gonna throw up." Imagine if you will a baseball, now put a baseball each on your elbows, neck, and knee. Add to that some seepage of white tophi fluid from said baseballs. Finish it off with little ping pong balls of seeping tophi fluid on the ears and eyebrows. That was Frank and this is what happens when gout gets really really out of control.
Dr. Randy told me that most physicians see this type of gout perhaps once in their career because it is so rare. The reason for it is simple, most people seek out help lonnnnng before gout gets this bad.
After seeing my reaction to Frank, which was mostly mental since the only physical reaction I had was a widening of the eyes, Dr. Randy decided that I should spend some time alone with frank getting his history. This was a pointless endeavor because they already had his history, but because I saw that Mr. Miyagi look in Dr. Randy's eyes I decided to suck it up and let the wax on wax off begin.
Frank was actually a pretty cool guy. He started talking to me as soon as I was alone with him and gave me the full breakdown of his current gouty condition. Frank was diagnosed with his gout by Dr. Randy about fifteen years ago. With the help of his wife he had been able to keep it in check without any flares of gouty arthritis. Frank's wife passed away about four years ago and ever since then he has been in depression. The depression wasn't what you might think it was. He was still the jovial person he normally is, he just stopped taking care of himself. It started small with skipping meds everynow and then until finally he quit on that altogether. Some time passed and without realizing it his gout had flared up to the stage where he was today. I asked him how he was able to bear the pain for so long without realizing the severity of it, but Frank was a 'Nam vet who was already used to dealing with massive amounts of paint. Thus his pain threshold was drastically higher than most peoples'.
What actually caused Frank to snap out of this depression was when he realized that all of his friends were no longer stopping by to visit and they were starting to shy away from him in public. This did not bode well for Frank because I imagine that like me he lives to entertain and be the life of the party. In this manner Frank found himself at Dr. Randy's that morning looking for a way out of his condition.
I was dumbfounded by Frank's story because it was completely unexpected. For the most part when you see someone with an illness, you tend to separate them from normal society and begin to treat them differently. This is what is known as "disease." It is a social condition, not a medical one. Illness can be treated, disease cannot because it is equal parts social as it is physical. The most debilitating part about disease is that once we associate somebody with it, they become just another statistic. We forget that they are people as well and that their lives have meaning.Dr. Randy was treating him with an IV dosage of medicine and I was in charge of monitoring his status; this worked out really well for me and over the course of the morning Frank continued to tell me about the ins and outs of his life.
I left Dr. Randy's clinic that morning with a newfound appreciation for medicine because not only does it help us cure an illness, it can help us begin the fight against disease. Frank showed me that just because a person might look grotesque, it does not mean that we should shun them. The treatment of disease begins by overcoming the mental barriers that society puts AGAINST helping the diseased. Once you start to peel back the layers of the patient, it becomes apparent that they are just another person with an illness. As people in the medical profession, it is our duty to go out and overcome these barriers so that we may better help out patients.
I have seen Frank a few more times since that first encounter and I am pleased to say that he is looking drastically better. His baseball tophi are now ping pong balls and the ping pong balls are now peas. His friends have started coming over again and he has confided that this turn of events is what is keeping him on his medication now. Frank no longer has a disease, he is merely ill.
PS: I have obviously changed the names of everyone involved. HIPAA bitches!
The one with the Lounge Games
It is currently 12:03 AM and I've just gotten back from a night of studying for ISF (screw you kidney, nobody ever told you to be complicated!). Ironically, whilst studying the properties of the wonderful limabean shaped organs that clean our blood, I drank so much caffeine that I demonstrated very well all of the properties of the collecting tubules. Ok thats enough with the nerd talk.
Anybody ever remember that episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" where Will got hustled at a pool hall? Uncle Phil turns up to save the day and starts getting his ass handed to him. Eventually the hustler gets bored and decides to raise the ante to $100 a ball and then all of a sudden Uncle Phil gets serious and tells Jeffrey to "bust out Lucille." All of a sudden Uncle Phil is a beast at pool and it turns out he's the biggest hustler in the history of the sport (the one handed shot he takes while eating a sub still has me rolling on the floor). I've always wondered how Uncle Phil got so good at pool, now I know: dude obviously went to med school before going to law school.
The lounge at my school has two pool tables and at most hours of the day there is somebody playing there. More often than not, its somebody who should be studying but desperately needs a distraction. I count myself amongst this group of people because whenever I get sick and tired of staring at a book, nothing is better than a game of pool or darts or mario kart or etc. Hell if they had a shuffleboard set down there I'd probably play that too.
It doesn't matter what your interest is, if you want a distraction the lounge has it. It wouldn't shock me one bit if the next billiard world champion is an MD. Seriously, most nights watching the really good people play is like watching ESPN 2 at 3 in the morning.
Whats more is that pool isn't even the most followed game in the lounge, that honor is reserved for the king of all medschool distractions: Ping Pong.
There is a rumor floating around that a pre-requisite for admission to our school is being beastly at Ping Pong. I believe it. It seems to me that 99.999999% of our student body has some talent at this ludicrous game. Hell the lounge event of the year is the singles ping pong tournament, or as most people call it, "The Battle For the Paddle."
Night and day you'll find Colin, Shudan, Vivek, Lee, Neil, Kareem, (insert any name here) downstairs playing pong. And trust me, these guys are good. Take all the anal tendencies that go into creating a medical student and now apply them to ping pong and what you get is a beast that even ESPN is scared to cover.
If you move a little bit over from ping pong you'll find the THREE (!!!) TV's lined up against the wall that are host to most of the consoles in the lounge. Here is where the Mario Kart, Goldeneye, Gears of War, Halo, etc. matches live. I hear that the South Korean Video Game TV Channels are in negotiations with the Lounge Lords over exclusive rights to broadcast the ridiculous matches that take place here.
All I'm saying is, for all of you hustlers out there, if you ever find yourself at a bar playing against a kid that looks like he/she should be studying instead of being hustled, walk away. Because I guarantee you that if its a doctor/med student, you WILL get hustled.
I'll end this on the lounge game of my choice: darts. I used to suck at this game, but these days I'm like those assassins from "Wanted" (that Angelina Jolie film with the curving bullets). I can make this darts do whatever the hell I want. One day while playing Jeff, I needed to get 12 bullseyes before he got 3 to win. I hit that 12th one before he got his first.
Anybody ever remember that episode of "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" where Will got hustled at a pool hall? Uncle Phil turns up to save the day and starts getting his ass handed to him. Eventually the hustler gets bored and decides to raise the ante to $100 a ball and then all of a sudden Uncle Phil gets serious and tells Jeffrey to "bust out Lucille." All of a sudden Uncle Phil is a beast at pool and it turns out he's the biggest hustler in the history of the sport (the one handed shot he takes while eating a sub still has me rolling on the floor). I've always wondered how Uncle Phil got so good at pool, now I know: dude obviously went to med school before going to law school.
The lounge at my school has two pool tables and at most hours of the day there is somebody playing there. More often than not, its somebody who should be studying but desperately needs a distraction. I count myself amongst this group of people because whenever I get sick and tired of staring at a book, nothing is better than a game of pool or darts or mario kart or etc. Hell if they had a shuffleboard set down there I'd probably play that too.
It doesn't matter what your interest is, if you want a distraction the lounge has it. It wouldn't shock me one bit if the next billiard world champion is an MD. Seriously, most nights watching the really good people play is like watching ESPN 2 at 3 in the morning.
Whats more is that pool isn't even the most followed game in the lounge, that honor is reserved for the king of all medschool distractions: Ping Pong.
There is a rumor floating around that a pre-requisite for admission to our school is being beastly at Ping Pong. I believe it. It seems to me that 99.999999% of our student body has some talent at this ludicrous game. Hell the lounge event of the year is the singles ping pong tournament, or as most people call it, "The Battle For the Paddle."
Night and day you'll find Colin, Shudan, Vivek, Lee, Neil, Kareem, (insert any name here) downstairs playing pong. And trust me, these guys are good. Take all the anal tendencies that go into creating a medical student and now apply them to ping pong and what you get is a beast that even ESPN is scared to cover.
If you move a little bit over from ping pong you'll find the THREE (!!!) TV's lined up against the wall that are host to most of the consoles in the lounge. Here is where the Mario Kart, Goldeneye, Gears of War, Halo, etc. matches live. I hear that the South Korean Video Game TV Channels are in negotiations with the Lounge Lords over exclusive rights to broadcast the ridiculous matches that take place here.
All I'm saying is, for all of you hustlers out there, if you ever find yourself at a bar playing against a kid that looks like he/she should be studying instead of being hustled, walk away. Because I guarantee you that if its a doctor/med student, you WILL get hustled.
I'll end this on the lounge game of my choice: darts. I used to suck at this game, but these days I'm like those assassins from "Wanted" (that Angelina Jolie film with the curving bullets). I can make this darts do whatever the hell I want. One day while playing Jeff, I needed to get 12 bullseyes before he got 3 to win. I hit that 12th one before he got his first.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
The one with the beginning
My name is Zeeshan and I currently spend my days as a first year medical student. This blog will be my chronicle throughout my life in medical school, provided I have the time/desire to update often enough. I suppose I should have started this blog at the start of medical school. However due to the fact that I spent the first two months having near panic attacks, I think the late start can be excused.
Why do this blog? Simple, at some point in my life when I'm not in crippling debt or constantly studying I want to be able to look back and have something to show the journey it took to get there.
Additionally I want to be able to chronicle (if possible) the process of becoming a doctor. I know there are a lot of tv shows out there now that have tried to do the same thing but take it from somebody who is going through it, it is NOTHING like that. I WISH that medicine was like Grey's Anatomy or Scrubs. It would make life a lot more interesting and everybody would be hotter. But sadly it is not.
I once asked a classmate of mine at a party how he was doing and this is what he told me:
"You know how I'm doing because you're going through the exact same thing right now. All of us are. I think I have more in common with you right now than I do with my closest friends."
That is the frank truth because as medical students we all go through the same thing. Whether you're in California or Maine, its the same. At times it sucks and at times it is amazing, but the journey through medical school is both incredibly unique and incredibly commonplace.
However you found yourself on this blog, I hope you enjoy reading it. And future-self, if you're actually reading this you better have a great wife and kids, a job you love, a big ass house, and numerous fast cars. If you don't, get a time machine and stop yourself from doing this!
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