Post Script and New Beginning's Part I

Ok. I know. Don't say it. Really, I know, and I'm sorry. I really wanted to keep up with this blog but life got so insane. Every free moment I could have used was used for something more important: a mindless activity to retain my sanity. That is until now actually. Now I have quite a bit of time on my hands, sort of. You're probably thinking "How do you have any time on your hands, you're a medical student!" Technically I'm on a leave of absence, really I'm not actually, but it's my brilliant school's fault and technically I'd think 3/4 of my class are on the same LOA if not more. This probably requires a bit of explanation. Lets go back, way back. We left off in 4th term I believe.

So 4th term ended with a fizzle academically. The second set of three exams in Path had a 61 class average. The lowest in our schools history. The department blamed us for being poor test takers. To that I say, well, I better not say it as it is quite offensive but you get the point. The first exam the class average was in the 80's. This means everyone must have taken a stupid pill the day of the second exam or the department messed up. They to this day maintain it was a fair exam. I never saw so many students cry during a fair exam though. This led to an uproar, lots of anxiety, lots of classmates dropping the class and being left behind, and shattered the image of the school has a helpful and loving entity to the few students who still had that in their minds. I didn't but I was still left shocked at the sheer audacity the department heads had when they would speak to the class about it's shortcomings. The third exam, here's where the fizzle comes in, was so easy in comparison that it was like the difference between a calculus exam and someone handing me a coloring book and saying go nuts. However the ragged few left at this point were so beaten down, exhausted, and out of fuel, me included, that A's as a class average did not happen but it was still pretty high from what I hear. I guess we stopped taking those stupid pills.

The feeling of relief that washed over me after this exam is indescribable. The minute I walked out suddenly colors were brighter, the air smelled sweeter, and it felt like my body suddenly was lighter and less strained. It was a good feeling. After this when all the exams were over and it was finally after 6 long months time to go home, we all drank like it was our last day to live and then got on our respective planes. There were a few gaps, people had different flight times and days.

That break was good and uneventful. Just relaxing.

Then 5th term came. It was a very different ballgame. There was a new common activity however between 4th and 5th term. I somehow, someway, for reasons unknown to me, became someone that a small group of lower termers would come to for advise. Asking me for advise there was in my eyes equivalent to someone asking a homeless man for smart long term investment tips. None the less I'd tell them whatever I could think of and many times it worked somehow. This led to a relationship that was formed between me and a few of them that was stronger then I would have thought. Some of them I now consider to be good friends, and excellent guys all around.

Back to 5th term. It was easier in the sense that by now anything was easier in comparison to what we had just been through. Material wise it was still hard, we still had to put in some serious time, and Step was right around the corner. We also felt close to the end. We had something for the first time in a long time that was foreign to us by now, hope. We were possibly going to make it off this island and into clinicals. We became cocky, jaded, and unimpressed with most things, exactly what seniors are supposed to be. In the end I gave away a lot of stuff to my awesome roommates (I miss you Rafi and Nate!) and the group of guys a year behind me upstairs that I affectionately referred to as my "Chitlin's". I was usually referred to as either "Papa Joe" by them or "Put it down, you've had enough". The latter nickname will not be discussed any further.

The end came, we had made it through, we partied one (or multiple) more times at the end like we were rockstars and then went our separate ways. Right here is another reason that island is so terrible. Some of these people that you have forged such a strong bond and friendship with through the hardest of times is now possibly not going to ever be a part of your life again unless they are going to be in your clinical center or nearby. So for some the goodbye's were rough. Everyone had different flight days and times as usual and Mike and I were the last ones to leave. I remember the last night on the island very clearly. We stayed in Mike and crew's house which by now was eerily empty and devoid of any trace of my friends other then the distinct smell of Yllibacca in his room. Mike and I went to his upstair's neighbors for dinner, a group of awesome vet students who took us in and fed us. After that it was a restless night for me, I kept going out on the balcony, smoking cigarettes, and staring off in complete disbelief that it was my last time ever seeing a night on that island.

Coming in Part II: Homecoming, Texas, Step I, and where I am now.