I'm Thankful For...

It's daunting being a doctor. Sure there is the respect, and yes there is a steady income, but no one tells you about the threat of constant upheaval. No one warns you that with new phase of your training, you run the risk of moving to a completely different part of the world. And with that risk, your social life becomes a pinball machine of scattered friends and family. The odds are against you - chances are you will grow apart from your closest friends, and your relationship will come to a crossroads: to stay together or move both your lives across country together. 

So here's to hoping that your boyfriend/husband is either a very successful business man who can request to transfer wherever he wants, or alternatively, unemployed.

I know a registrar who's consigned his life to being a wild single man who lives for weekends of debauchery. That is until he gets a consultant number and he can finally live out his dream of settling down. He's 28 and still waiting for that number. For a man that's fine. For a woman… In lectures they teach us that a woman is at her most fertile, her prime reproductive state, at 19 years old. I turn 24 in a couple weeks and my eggs are rapidly dying off as I type this.

But it's no biggie! I'm thankful for the change. The idea of a brand new unexplored city is very exciting and I'm impatient to start my training (slash receive a salary). More importantly, I'm thankful for the individuals I've come to love and adore. Although the thought of losing touch over the course of our foundation years and speciality training devastates me, I've at least got some pretty spectacular memories. For example, I'll look back to this weekend and think of our epic Thanksgiving dinner. I'll picture that table groaning under the weight of nine side dishes, four puddings and an 8kg titan called Thomas the Turkey, and then imagine all 16 of us on the floor, eyes glazed over and cradling our little food babies (Thomas Jrs). Plus a side shot of the 14 bottles of wine in the corner. 

So here's to our future as FY doctors! In the next 10 days, when our FPAS applications come through, may we are all be placed exactly where we want to be placed, and if it's not, that it will turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Even if we're stuck in Buckfuck, UK. Happy Thanksgiving!