My Guiltiest Pleasure

Some indulge in chocolate. Others in People Magazine. I may be one who falls into both of those categories at times, but perhaps my guiltiest pleasure of all is watching Felicity (yes the 1998-2002 series on the WB starring Keri Russell) at big moments of transition in my life when I am nostalgic for things past.

Felicity has always been there for me- in my transition from high school to college, college to consultancy, consultancy to post-bac/science jobs, post-bac/science jobs to med school, and now pre-clinical med school to clinical med school. I always manage to find meaning in the too-obviously-scripted stories and the cheesy, unrealistic dialogue. Somehow, I always manage to find episodes serendipitously that relate to the current transition events of my life. I also strangely, or not, relate to the naive Felicity. I'm not sure I'm quite like her, but, for better or for worse, I do find myself reflecting on and looking for meaning in every moment; constantly thoroughly thinking things through; consistently self-reflecting.

Cat's out of the bag. I turn to Felicity in my transition periods. (And I own all 4 seasons on DVD; my sisters, who know me too well and also indulge in WB dramas, bought them for me as my college graduation gift.) Go ahead and judge me. I'm watching Felicity as I write this and I'm loving it.

Oddly Nostalgic

Yesterday, second year came to an end. For all the times I cursed being in medical school and suffered insufferable afternoons and evenings in my books, I actually started to miss it yesterday as soon as it was over.

Let me clarify, I don't miss the studying. (Be it known that I am in fact still studying for Step 1 of the medical licensing board exam.) I'm going to miss the moments with best friends. (Cheese alert) The moments of misery that turn into hilarity, the moments of insanity where it's clear we've all cracked, the snark-tastic moments that only are funny to best friends who spend 8-12 hours a day together - those pre-clinical days are gone.

For sure, there will be new moments in the clinical years that will be equally if not more memorable, moments I'm not even capable of foreseeing right now. And they'll be just as important, if not more, in my medical school experience as my pre-clinical years are. Still I wanted to take the time to recognize the end of an important part of my life that was incredibly formative professionally and personally.

To bring my vision of these last two years back to reality, though, just like middle school and high school (for most people, myself included), this is a part of my life that I would not want to relive- just oddly nostalgically look back on.

Off to the boards and 3rd year!