July First

July 1st….Oh the joy! (no, not really).

I read this today and a flood of memories surfaced.

Polonius’ well-known words to his son from Shakespeare’s Hamlet resound in my mind when I reflect on the challenges during those intense clinical training years.

Despite the hours required of medical students in addition to those ‘extra’ efforts (never ask ‘your’ resident if you can leave, show your commitment by rounding early, stay extra late to find the latest EBM for your a.m. pimping rounds by the Attending…),  I didn’t feel completely ‘out of balance.’  But, post-grad training – intern year in particular – provided genuine testing ground for me on a personal level.  I knew it would be a limited time to embrace as much ‘learning’ as possible to become the best physician I could be; but at what personal sacrifice?

Well, I had enough friends ahead of me in their training that I knew (from their advice) I needed to maintain some level of sanity by balancing my personal time.  For the next years I attended museum lectures at the Met every month.  Together my spouse and I enjoyed the NY Philharmonic on a regular basis, as well as spent time in Central Park as much as possible.  In the middle of it all, we took a trip to Europe.  At the end of it, we felt gratitude for everything, but mostly that we would never have to ‘do it again.’

For all the new interns out there – I have only one thing to share: To thine own self be true.