American I-bull sh**

I just finished up a month in emergency medicine, and while en route to another educational locale I got together with CLL and 888 and a few other friends for lunch. Naturally, all we talked about was medicine. One of my lunchmates is not a medical student, and as I listened to myself go on and on about the different things I've seen and done so far it suddenly dawned on me that I must sound incredibly boring.

To someone who's not a medical student, being privy to our mealtime exchange must be as stale as astronaut food. I imagine sitting at that table was something like judging a miniature painting contest, or making a Hinterland Who's Who funded documentary about muskoxen, or somehow poking yourself in the eyeball with your other eyeball.

Most of what I talk about is medicine. Most of what I think about is medicine. Pretty much everything I do is somehow medically related. People told me when I started that I would work non stop, take no vacations, and run away with the secretary, but nobody warned me that it would swallow my life to the extent that it has. Even when I make a conscious effort to try to talk about something else, invariably I find myself talking about another medical school related issue or anecdote. Is there no way out?

Well, I think I've started taking steps in the right direction. I've recognized that I need to shut up more about work/school, and do more that's not tied to medicine. I've been trained for many years to convert all my free time into more work time. It won't be easy to break free of my Pavlovian conditioning, but now that I've made my career choice, hopefully it won't be impossible. Here's to the work free weekend, and keeping it that way.