A little insight into my motivations for this blog ...

As a lead in, I want all people that are reading this to know that this is an entirely new venture for me. In no way do I consider myself a writer, in fact I'm quite the opposite. For almost 8 years I have been trained to be a scientist, implementing logic and evidence based medicine to solve complex problems. As a result, I would certainly describe myself as a "black and white" type personality, which unfortunately can make my ramblings dry and anything but a page-turning read. However, I've toyed with the idea of a blog regarding the journey through medical school and residency since it began nearly four years ago, and only now (during my fourth year) do I have the time to finally put pen to paper, or finger to keys. 

My goals for this blog are not to inspire some cathartic personal experience which changes my views on life, but rather to incorporate you into this journey my family and I have experienced the last 4 years and will continue as I start residency in 4 months. If you ask any medical student about their personal lives, a universal statement you are guaranteed to hear is, "I think one of the most difficult parts of medical school is that no one truly understands what I'm going through." It's impossible to accurately describe the intensity of medical school, and how it attempts to consume your entire life, to anyone who has not been through it personally. It's difficult to describe how during the first two years of medical school we attend lectures for 4-6 hours a day and then somehow find time to study another 6-10 hours, and still have time to maintain our sanity. It's even more difficult to describe the fear you have while caring for patients for the first time, performing procedures, being on call for the first time, performing CPR on a small child, and dealing with the death of your first patient. Yet, somehow you're expected to bury all those fears and continue learning in order to become a competent and confident physician. I can't speak for all medical students, but my faith, friends/family, and most importantly my wife (and now son) have been the support which has allowed me to make it through the last 4 years. 

Over the course of the following entries, I hope you, the reader, gain a better understanding of the successes, failures, joys, and struggles that my family and I have experienced and will face in the future. Moving forward, as I begin residency I hope to continue this as consistently as possible, and I plan to be as honest as I can in order that you may understand and share in our journey. Until then, I'll try to write about some of the stories I carry with me from the last 4 years and what these next few months look like till I start residency.