Last Post

In the dwindling hours that remain for me to be called a medical student, I wanted to post one last blog entry for you all. I hadn't had time, but thanks to some drunk woman yelling outside the hotel room at 02:18, I am wide awake and able to write this the night before I lose my title of Student Doctor. Thankfully, my aunt was able to get hotel rooms near the graduation venue and I don't have to drive in early from where I live an hour away. Anyway...

Tomorrow is the big day, when I and the other members of the inaugural class of my medical school finish what we started four years ago. This is only one milestone in a journey that started not four years ago when we got our acceptance letters, but many years before that, when we first got the crazy notion to become physicians. It's only through the support of my family and friends that I got this far, and it's only with their continued love and support that I will be successful in the continuation of the journey. I want to thank each of you who have helped me along the way for your encouragement and the belief that I could accomplish this - I truly could not have done this without you.

In the weeks leading up to now, I have had the whole gamut of emotions: being excited that I will finally become an actual doctor, terrified that I will finally become an actual doctor.... Currently, I think the whole situation is too much for me to grasp. I always thought I would be more excited as the hours counted down to the ceremony, but with the combination of the finality not quite sinking in and the fear of the unknown as my internship approaches, I am emotionally neutral.

Speaking of internship, I have been accepted to a Traditional Rotating Internship, which is the fancy name for the training year that used to be the standard or newly-graduated doctors, so they could get more experience in first-hand application of the main areas of medicine before starting specialty training. While it was a disappointment not matching directly into a program to focus on a specialty more quickly, I am grateful to have a place to go next year. Since this program is only one year long, I turn right around and start applying to residency programs again, which is the same process as last year. While internship year brings quite a workload, I am expecting that it will just be a blur and I'll be in residency proper before I know it.

I may post one last, brief entry with graduation photos, but if not, my next posts will be at my new blog, Life of an Intern.

Scott