Med Student Running

Now that I'm in medical school, the extent of my exercise is often walking my dog or riding my bike to school.

People think that's okay.

I was an athlete.

It's not exercise if you don't sweat.

Med Student Cooking

I don't have a lot of time to cook. Weird how taking 19 credit hours of the hardest classes of your life (up to this point) will do that to you.
When I did have time, in that month between growing season when I worked at the greenhouse/getting married/medical school, this was my absolute favorite thing to make.

If you think you don't like broccoli, you're wrong. If you've had good broccoli before because it was smothered with cheese, you're wrong.

Not to be arrogant or anything.

But seriously, this is SO good.
I just ate it on rice for lunch. That's all I had.
I'm so disappointed it's gone.
(And I just uploaded four pictures of broccoli like it was my own first-born child. Not ashamed.)

And it's so easy.

Cut the broccoli.
Heat the oven to 410+
Toss broccoli in olive oil, add a little bit of something acidic (lemon juice is probably the best, although I have used apple cider vinegar when there was no lemon juice around).
Cook it for 20 minutes. Put stuff on top (parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, garlic).

Devour.

Every Joy Is Beyond All Others

I am not a morning person. I prefer the night, it's easy for me to stay up late and always a struggle to wake up, regardless of how early I went to bed. 

This year my husband works an hour away and has to wake up fairly early, and I do my best to wake up with him and see him off before starting my day. 

One of the best things about this: the sunrises. 

Just two days ago as I was getting my breakfast ready, there was liquid gold pouring into the window. 

I felt like I was being baptized with light so thick I would be able to reach out and pull it over me, a blanket that brings wakefulness and excitement instead of sleep. 

Isn't it beautiful? 

The weirdest thing I've learned this fall...

Situs inversus.

It's crazy. There are people walking around whose insides are the mirror image of everyone else's.

Sometimes this causes problems (generally heart defects are associated). Sometimes it doesn't.

A person with situs inversus is above, while a normal chest radiograph is on the right.
image from:


Weird.

Men and women

I read this interesting blog that Donal Miller wrote about how men treat men differently than they treat women.

http://storylineblog.com/2012/10/30/like-equals-or-like-men/

Outside of his questions, I now have some of my own...

She said men don’t compliment each other, they don’t encourage each other, and when they shake hands, they grab each other firmly and look each other in the eye without smiling. It’s like they don’t know how to get along, she said.

Is this why I tend to have better friendships with men...I don't know how to compliment/appease a woman's emotions enough to maintain multiple long-term/high-density relationships with them?

As a rule, men are not nice or kind to each other. We do have our friends and we play our favorites, but for the most part, men are competitive and intense and are often marking our territory. I don’t know a single man who isn’t more kind to women than they are to men. Men are tough with each other and much more likely to fight with each other than they are to fight with a woman.

Is this why guys who know each other through a significant other have a hard time getting along? They're "marking their territory"?

Weird.

This is actually hard. Please don't assume I'm just being modest.

Medical school is hard. I know you hear med students say that all the time, but maybe you're a pre-med student who thinks, "Yeah, it's hard for most people but I've never struggled in school before and I'm killer with multiple choice tests."
Maybe you just know a medical student, and all of his or her life they've been really good in school, and if they get an A- their whole day is ruined. If they get a B in a class, they might cry for 3 hours. So you assume that when they say they didn't do well on a test that they got in the low 90s, maybe an 89%, and so you naturally say, "Oh come on, I'm sure you did fine!"

There's a meme on the popular tumblr about medical school about test scores. There is picture a representing undergrad 75, showing a girl under a desk crying and drinking a bottle of wine. The picture of a med school 75 has a man winning a game show, ecstatically raising his hands above his head. #whatshouldwecallmedschool

This is an accurate description.

So from now on, if I tell you I didn't do well on a test, please do me a favor and assume I almost failed...or maybe that I did fail....and react accordingly. It makes it worse when you remind me that I used to be smart enough for you to assume doing bad was still an A.

This is my desire...

Today in my medical student life, I have a cell biology test. It seems like it will be a pretty difficult one, the practice questions are not cognitively intuitive and it often appears that more than one option could be arguably correct.

In the midst of my studying, this NeedToBreathe song came on my iPod:

I was really struck by it. 

As much as I desire to do well on my exam, the ultimate desire that defines me 

is to be consumed by my Beautiful God.

How small are a few points wrong compared to the breathtaking knowledge of the Creator?