In talking to a friend about the weather last week, I realized how much of the seasons I've missed this year. While I've been so consumed with learning about medicine this year, the world around me has often been observed only through a layer of glass…

During the summer I was immersed in the long hours and overnights of inpatient rotations, and I often arrived at the hospital before the sun came up, and headed home as it was setting. I managed to miss the hottest days of summer this way, seeing the sweltering heat radiating up from the roads and sidewalks from the privileged position of the windows outside the operating rooms. I caught the tail-end of summer on my family medicine rotation, watching the sunshine stream in through my car window as I drove out to my assigned clinic location. I did take advantage of some free weekend time to enjoy the warmth and light, but it was already September and I was looking forward to fall. As the leaves changed and temperatures cooled a bit, I again found myself appreciating the vista from the OR windows during my week on neurosurgery, wondering if it would be inappropriate to bring my camera back (I decided it was) to capture the fall color as I was seeing it for the first time from inside the hospital. The last six weeks of the OB-GYN rotation have been some of my favorite weeks of medical school, and yet I couldn't help but notice how drawn I was to the post-partum rooms on the 7th floor of Mott, with the long hallway of windows between the elevator and the patient rooms. When we followed our team for a quick tour of the labor and delivery floor of the new Mott, we all stood and marveled at the beautiful views from the patient rooms, watching the river meander through the falling leaves from the windows on the 9th floor.

And now somehow it's really winter. Dividing up the year into 4-8 week blocks makes it really fly by, and I'm not sure how it's the beginning of December already. We've gotten the first good snow of the season, and I'm looking forward to avoiding being out in it too much, as I'm starting my community psychiatry rotation on Monday. I'll be enjoying the next 6 weeks of winter weather from the car.