Everyone needs a Cookie

Every once in a while I get this question in my head. It is normally sparked by something else, a comment made by someone, a scene in a movie, an episode of Scrubs. Today it was as I finished reading Winterdance by Gary Paulson for the 2nd or 3rd time. The story makes me laugh and cry sometimes at the some time. The fact that he decides to run the Iditarod with only cursory experience mushing is incredible and naive and crazy. Yet he does it. The passion he feels overwhelms him. So now you might be asking what a story about freezing cold Alaska has to do with medical student in the heat of Australia. It makes me ask what the hell did I get myself into.

It makes me imagine that my work in the hospital is simply a cursory taste of what I am going to go through. I look at the massive student loans, the moving away from family and friends, and finally the future. Four years in school then at least 3 years of residency which is supposed to be more grueling than school. Oh yeah, but you get paid during residency, I think the going rate is somewhere around $2.50 an hour. Fortunately, and hopefully this continues throughout my life, there is that 1 in 10 patients that really made it worthwhile. They made me feel especially good, even if it was just for helping him to his wheelchair or cleaning pebbles out of her arm after a car accident. Gary had his Cookie I hope I keep seeing mine.

School starts in about a week and I am still looking for a place to live. I have however managed to get my mode of transportation sorted. I have purchased what I affectionately will call Blue lightning or Blue for short. She is a beautiful, but not so much so that she stands out, commuter bike. I will hopefully figure out a way to attach a picture of her to the blog. She has allowed me to dart around town to look at multiple apartments and houses today to find that there is a big range from infested to gorgeous here in Sydney. It’s all about how much I want to spend and since I figure every dollar I spend now I have to pay back two, it is a careful balance. Infested or close to is not even an option.