human contact

The one unfortunate thing about entering my graduate studies is that my average amount of human contact incper day has drastically decreased.  It's the Goldilocks problem: seeing patients constantly I think would be very draining, but having a grand total of twenty minutes of conversation a day isn't going to work either.  Hence the whole MD/PhD idea.  I'm too extroverted to sit in a corner by myself for four years solving problems, but I'm not extroverted enough to think that hearing forty-five patients' life stories each day is the perfect job (assuming one would do internal medicine or outpatient family practice).  I think I'm happiest with a good chunk of time to sit by myself and beat my head against the wall, but having some built-in human contact is nice.... again, hence the "let me do two or three careers' worth of graduate school and get my first job when I'm forty" choice of educational pathways.

I am glad to be in graduate school, but after this summer I have realized I need to be pretty intentional about spending time with people, as it's not going to happen unless I plan on it.  It's just a bit hard now because most of my friends are very busy and exhausted in the hospital, and I haven't really made friends with the incoming graduate students because they have just arrived.

Which reminds me: I am now officially a graduate student, as this is "orientation" week.  I think I've mostly gotten stuff figured out (like how to navigate the medical center) after being here two years, but it is nice to meet the new graduate students.