Sitting Idle / Holiday Recap

I now understand what a race horse feels like when they are behind the gate before a race starts. My return to the university starts in less than a week and I'm so ready to start again that I practically have no attention span for anything else that isn't related towards my goal of becoming a doctor. I think I need to mentally take it down a notch.

The holiday break was nice. For the second year in a row, my family managed to go giftless and emphasize the importance of the holiday on time spent with the family. In a family of adults, gift giving usually just results in wide scale disappointment. At this time in my life, if I want something then I'll just go buy it myself.

My nephew gave me the gift of humility when I decided to play against him in a video game that ressembled the old school Nintendo Track and Field that was played on the power pad. One of the events in this game was the 100m dash and about 5 seconds into the race when I fell behind 30m, he blurts out " I'm owning you " and continues to run to the finish line. A testament to the fact that I am a sound resident of my late 20s.

Jingle Bell Run

This morning I ran in the Jingle Bell Run 5k. Apparently it is the biggest 5k race in Columbus. Pre-registration included a band, a ton of local mascots, and Mary Lou Reton. I thought the Beat Michigan 5k was cold ... I was wrong. This race was ran in 27 degree weather with light snow. So far, the 5k races that I have run in seem to go by pretty fast but I'd like to run my next one with the mindset of enjoying the scenery instead of just mentally concentrating on putting one step in front of the other. I lost about 30 seconds this time from November's race. I'll blame the shoe laces for becoming untied into the last mile. These races have not become 'fun' yet but they are definitely helping me build my mental toughness for when school starts in a month.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The time off work is spent specifically for family, friends, and food. It's a humble holiday that allows me to emphasize the importance of being content with the 'haves' and not the 'have nots'.

This year I decided to take a long drive to visit my brother, sister in-law, and my 5 year old nephew at their home in North Chicago. As an added bonus to getting to spend time with my family, I also had the opportunity of touring their medical school and examining my first cadaver. To my surprise, I didn't feel queezy at all when they showed me the body. In fact, I got hungry for beef jerky. I hope this is a good sign of things to come.

5 and O-H - I-O

Yesterday I had one of the best experiences of my lifetime.  The Buckeyes demolished Michigan 42-7 in the most lopsided victory of the rivalry since 1968 and I am glad that I got to attend such a great game.  Though not as important as the game I attended in 2002 when we went to the National Championship, this one was definitely less stressful and dare I say it ... more fun to be at.  There were virtually no Michigan fans at The Shoe (I heard they had some trouble making it past Toledo).  The few that were sitting near us said absolutely nothing during the game.  I would assume that they felt alot like I did when I was sitting in the Colosiuem during the USC game.

Hey you went to college right?

This is the question that inevitably ends up being the ice breaker to another more complex question that I may or may not have the answer to. I'm curious when the false assumption that all college students have all the answers even started. My coworkers tend to do this to me on a daily basis.

Today's question was 'Do you put one space or two spaces after a period?' My response was two if you're being graded for a paper or one if you live in the 21st century and no longer use a type-writer to dictate your work.

I need to do a better job of teaching them about Wikipedia. One of these days, my colleagues are going to ask me a question that I don't have an immediate answer to. If I'm not near a computer with Internet access, they will be let down severely. So much pressure!

I'm sure doctors face the same situations.

Random Person: Hey you're a doctor right? Why does it burn when I pee?

Doctor: I don't know ... I'm a cardiologist not a urologist.

Random Person: Gee, some help you've been!

* Interestingly enough, blogger automatically edits your sentences so they only contain one space after the period.

The Beat Michigan 5K

2008 marked the year that I returned to participate in the Beat Michigan 5K. It's a race conducted at The Ohio State University every year during Michigan Week.

http://www.beatmichigan5k.org

This year was drastically different than when I had run the race in 2003. For one thing, it was about 15 degrees colder than I remember. Running 3.1 miles in 32 degree temperature is not fun. The field this year was also younger and faster by comparison to 2003. Statistical evidence that older people hate running in the cold?

I was aiming for a 25 minute finish time but only managed to complete the run in 29 minutes 43 seconds. Not terrible for me since I don't train long distance runs. My 32 year old brother claims that I was slow. Typical response from an older sibling in an asian family. I forsee a day during Thanksgiving where he forces me to run with him just to prove that he's faster than me. I managed to improve my time by 4 minutes, which is great since I was 22 the first time I ran in this race. There's another race coming up in December to support the arthitis foundation. My new goal is 27 minutes.

Green Light

It was bound to happen. Like every pre-med student (yes it does feel very awkward to refer to myself as one now) there is a check list of things that you apparently must have prior to starting. Chemistry goggles, stethoscope, and a personal blog to document this ridiculous road that I've chosen to navigate. I've decided not to flood the first posting with my life story or an explanation for why I've decided to go back to school to become a doctor. I'm writing this blog similar to how Tarantino writes his films; begin the story right away and as the movie progresses you'll begin to get it. If my estimation is correct, I'm just shy of a decade until I have earned the right to stick MD or DO at the end of my name. That means I don't have to feel bad about cutting this blog short, there's going to be several thousand entries when it's all said and done.