D-Day Minus Seven

Today marks the beginning of the end for me.

Actually, that's not true. That's just melodrama. In one week, I will begin orientation for medical school. I am nervous, yes, but I am also really excited and worried and giddy and any other number of emotions. The spectrum of feelings comes from the unknown nature of what's to come. In a literal sense, I understand the entity of med school. I know that I'll have classes/tests/labs/etc and that I'll likely do just fine. I know people who are doing it now and who have finished. It is possible. Will it be a challenge (and by challenge I mean the hardest thing I've ever done)? Of course. But, I don't know (and I don't think you can know until you experience it) how I will handle life as a med student and the changes to myself and my life that come along with it.

Will my view of health care and what it should be in society change? My opinions and outlook concerning ethics and the obligations of others? There are big questions involved in starting something like this, or at least I imagine there to be. And lest we forget the other questions that inevitably arise: What will gross me out the most? Will I ever get used to the idea of people turning to me, the guy who builds fictional wooden cubes for fun and still routinely reads Calvin and Hobbes, for answers in huge life decisions?

I suppose more than anything, even with these questions and concerns, I'm still just really excited to start. I can only liken it to the first day of school, be it kindergarten or college. Right now the unknown still triumphs (although I suspect it always will) and I love the potential that exists. The thought of the amount of information I will learn (which will be but a fraction of what they teach) excites me and I think I'm as ready now as I'll ever be to begin.

But don't let me get ahead of myself. It's really the beginning of the beginning. I still have 7 days of freedom. I'm going to go read, play Xbox and make some chicken stir fry for dinner when my better half gets home. After I fold the laundry.