It’s easy to fall into the “woe is me” mindset when you spend the vast majority of your waking (and sometimes sleeping) hours in the hospital, and as the daylight hours become shorter, I have no doubt I’ll find myself sinking into this trap more and more. We work long hours. We sacrifice time spent with loved ones to focus our energy one someone else’s loved ones. We miss out on food, sleep, and normal human interaction. We force our brains to choke down textbook chapter after textbook chapter, then chastise ourselves when we make the smallest mistake during a pimping session…With all these complaints, you’d thinking someone was forcing me to be here. But that’s just it, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t realize, deep down, that there is nothing I’d rather spend my time doing. So allow me a few moments to take stock of my situation (the situation of all interns) and remind me (us) of a few things I (we) have to be grateful for.
1. We are healthy. We are not the ones lying in the bed being poked and prodded for the 10th time today by the intern who “just wants to make sure everything is okay” meanwhile watching the same infomercial they saw every hour on the hour for the past 5 days.
2. We are employed. There are a lot of people out there who don’t have the luxury of saying that.
3. We chose to do this. Choice is a wonderful gift. Remember, if you wake up tomorrow and decide this isn’t the life you want, that’s okay! No one is forcing you to be here.
4. Somehow we are lucky enough to have loved ones who are willing to stick this out with us. They don’t gripe when we forget to call because they realize we probably fell asleep the moment we walked in the front door. Remember to thank them (thanks guys – you know who you are).
5. We have the coolest jobs in the world. Our patients have deemed us worthy of taking their lives into our hands (both literally and figuratively). If someone were to hear me describe my day to day, and have no idea I was training to be a surgeon, there’s a pretty good chance they’d arrest me on the spot (I’ve been told society looks down on cutting people open). And though we all encounter those “difficult patients” from time to time, the vast majority are grateful for their interactions with us (and for those who aren’t, try to put yourself in their shoes…the hospital is a scary place).
I don’t pretend that I wake up every morning with a giant grin on my face, ready to take on the day. No. I’m just like every other human being who groans when they hear their alarm, and like every other intern who walks into the hospital praying to Netter that I won’t get called on during morning conference, but hey…deep down I realize how lucky I am. Life is good.
Ingredients:
- Peaches
- Balsamic vinegar
- Brown sugar
- Basil or Mint
- Cute the peaches in half and remove the pit.
- Drizzle the cut faces of the peaches with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with brown sugar. Let sit for as long as you’re willing to wait (I lasted about 5 minutes).
- Grill face down for 5-10 minutes then flip over and grill the uncut side of the peach for another 5 minutes. The peaches are done with soft all the way through.
- Top with basil or mint and eat as-is or with scoop of ice cream.
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