In the third grade, my teacher asked the class to make a list of ten things we wanted to be when we grew up. Becoming a doctor was #3 on that list, right behind playing in the World Cup (#1) and playing in the Super Bowl (#2). The rest of the list I can’t remember anymore, but the important thing is this: wanting to become a doctor was an actual childhood dream of mine. And it’s about to become a reality, officially, tomorrow.
It sounds meager, maybe even a little sad. 1/10. Just 10% of my most ardent aspirations as a kid have come true. But it’s the sweetest 90% disappointment I’ve ever tasted.
Tomorrow is going to be a good day.
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“From essential to irrelevant, just like that.” — Me, thinking to myself as I walked through the wards with no white coat, no steth, no SIC work to do. Having no purpose in PGH is both unsettling and relieving at the same time.
A Different Look
Today I walked through PGH for the first time as a free man, as a civilian rather than a servant. It’s like the whole hospital was bathed in the special soft, warm light that you normally see only on post-duty mornings. Maybe that’s because I’m not just post-duty, I’m post-PGH.
Signing Out
Thank you, blockmates. I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to work with a group of such promising, hard-working and fun-loving doctors this whole year. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
Block D, PGH Interns, 2011-2012.
Just a Reminder
Ibang Klase
5 years.
Just like that.
Thank you, 2012.
PGH Interns, 2011-2012
Dear Labor Room-Delivery Room,
Once and for all, I bid you good-bye. Take my half-awake, awkward, moonwalk dance party shuffle out of your clutches this morning to mean exactly what it looked like: you will not be missed. I gladly leave your smell, your claustrophobic feeling and sleep-depriving duties behind with no looking back. Our time together has run its course and it couldn’t have come a minute too soon.
See you around. Hopefully never.
-Ikey