progress

I finally caught up with one of my fellow mudphuds today for dinner after about a two-month interim.  Somewhere in there I told him how much I was enjoying my classes this semester in computer science and mathematical physiology.  I certainly have to brush up on calculus III and some other topics, but it was nice to just apply the tools I've been learning.

He stopped me to remind me that this was a radically different that what I've been telling him for the past few years.  It surprised me when he said that - it was true, but somehow I'd forgotten it. 

When I first started the graduate school phase, we'd meet up for Indian food and I'd complain about how this whole grand training plan seemed like a really stupid idea, and that I was getting completely slaughtered by all my courses and sleeping in the office and really, really struggling with everything.  Now, while that may yet lie in the future, the courses are more pleasantly challenging than desperately so.  I suppose I have actually learned something in the past few years... it's nice to realize that maybe there has been some progress although it is not very evident.

And just think, when I finally start to get somewhere, it'll be time to go back to clinic to start back at square zero as a medical student!

Note to potential future MD/PhD students: if you don't like frequently starting over once you start to feel confident, or feeling like an ignorant idiot most of the time, this is probably not the right career path for you.  One must have a high tolerance for returning to the bottom of the totem pole skill-wise.