Last I wrote I was preparing for my first OR adventure. I'm proud to say I (obviously) survived and, what's more, didn't do anything exceedingly embarrassing! It went far better than I possibly could have imagined and now I find myself completely reconsidering the few preconceived notions I had as to what I want to do with my life. My primary concern with envisioning myself as a surgeon is the hours: not the quantity, but the starting point. My body doesn't function properly before the sun comes up (or, typically, for several hours after the sun comes up). That's kind of a problem. If I had my way, the "day" would run from roughly 11:00 AM to 1:00 AM. You guys could get on board with that, right? If so, problem solved! …But seriously, I'm not sure if I'm capable of this. I'm confident that I can survive my surgery clerkship (notice "survive" as opposed to "excel in,") but not so much in terms of a potential career. We shall see.

There's also the fact that I'm really clumsy. I'll cross that bridge when (if) I come to it.

Speaking of clerkships, we received the terrifying news that we had to rank our track choices (the order in which we'll cycle through the various clinical rotations) in early December. We were given something along the lines of a week to agonize over what we were assured was a completely arbitrary decision. Everyone will eventually get to everything anyway, there's no such thing as a "gunner track," etc. LIKE WE'RE GOING TO BUY THAT. In typical fashion, we over-analyzed and obsessed over how this decision would impact the rest of our lives. I should also mention that "decision" is not really the most appropriate descriptor: we rank what we want and then what we actually get is determined by a lottery system. In other words, even if you develop a foolproof algorithm to hone in on which track is meant to be yours, you still might not get it. Did this impede our efforts in the slightest? Hah. (We're unabashedly neurotic. We can't help ourselves.) Everything obviously turned out just fine. No fatalities. I ended up with my first choice which just so happened to be Track A (A-team, WOOOOO). I also reveled in the hijinks of my classmates on the spreadsheet where we entered our results so that we could further theorize on the group dynamics of the new inhabitants of the various tracks. (As I said: neurotic.)

Being at home for the holidays was delightful aside from the disgustingly hot weather. I don't care if you're Florida - you're not allowed to be 86 degrees on Christmas. Unacceptable behavior. Nonetheless, I had a lovely time. My puppy was as adorable as ever and perhaps even more cuddly than usual! I managed to see Star Wars three times (still not enough, but a decent start) and we spent a couple days in Orlando seeing, among other things, Diagon Alley at Universal Studios. Pro tip: Knockturn Alley is extra air-conditioned for effect. Slap on a Dark Mark to blend in and bask in its breezy glory.

Because the Step 1 exam is starting to weigh ever more heavily on the mind I spent a fair amount of time looking over resources while I actually had the chance, but I also spent an equally fair amount of time playing Fallout 4 and being purely lazy. I feel like I balanced things quite effectively.

Now that we're back we only have a few sequences left before the Step 1 study period. I feel like I say this every time and yet it still comes as a shock: how does time slip away so quickly?