What Am I Doing?
Don’t worry, you can rest assured that this post has nothing to do with me regretting leaving medicine and yearning to go back! Though I have completed my residency in it’s entirety and “could” go back, I am just having way too much fun enjoying my new day job and relishing my new found freedom to even give such a dreadful scenario one second’s worth of thought.
Rather, I have decided to title this post, “What Am I Doing?”, because this is what you may very well be asking yourself after you watch the following video. This beautifully put together piece chronicles one man’s recent 1 year journey around the world after he courageously quit his desk job. Just a word of warning: If you are currently a medicine intern, you may want to come back to this post in July since this video is bound to make you madly stir crazy. It may also cause you to start questioning why on earth you signed up for 80 hr work weeks, being chained to a pager, getting verbally abused from everyone from the scrub nurse to the janitor, wasting precious time writing reems of nonsensical cover your ass notes and filling in piles of redundant forms, all the while there is a rich and amazing world waiting to be discovered on the outside.
Actually, taking a “gap year” to see the world is actually rather common among Europeans. Among Americans, this is a relative rarity. I can personally attest to this after my most recent 2 month overseas trip this past summer. I figure that my fellow Americans are just too damn busy mapping out their lives since Kindergarten like I pointed out in this post to ever consider doing such a thing. We are programmed from a very young age to get the best grades, go to the best schools, get the best jobs, and to cut as many throats as we have to so we can be the Mr. and Mrs. Alpha Jones family on the block. And all for what? Please realize that the “American” way is NOT the only way and you don’t have to buy into the bullshit either and trade away your valuable time which you can never get back.
Medicinesux 
WOW, great post and awesome video. LOVE IT. If only people took the time to have some inner reflection, they would be so much happier. Most people only focus on external goals and hey it may work for some but it’s no way to live. Always going from one point to the next..is no fun. The worse thing you can do is speed up life. What a miserable existence to keep on chasing one thing after another. Glad you found an awesome gig and living life!
❤
Michelle
Michelle,
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. I wholeheartedly agree with you how living one’s life by moving from goalpost to goalpost is no way to finding inner peace and contentment. And how could you if you are feeling constantly restless? I used to live that way and am so glad I stepped off that hamster wheel! No longer mapping out the future and living each day to the max has truly changed my entire outlook.
Ahh yep the paradoxes of life.. thought I’d share this link I forgot to post. Reminded me of you and others who are trying to live in the truth and peace instead of with the crazy herd! =D
http://www.nightscribe.com/Sociology/paradoxes_of_life.htm
Thanks for the link. The irony in that piece resonates with me so palpably.
Wow, this is so spot on! I met my wife while she was working as a resident physician and now works as an Internist and she is Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo SICK of hearing complaints from the top down. She is exhausted at the end of the day, has nothing left for me, the kids, and talks about needing time for herself to heal. She would prefer to be raptured rather than continue working in Internal Medicine.
There does not seem to be any way for her to change careers, even with all that education which really SUCKS!
Bro, whats’s up? I remember you back from your JDU days. Do you still post on that site? I came across an article that made me think about you and your dire warning for the medical field. You warning have finally come true!! Check this out…
How are things now? Enjoyed reading your perspective thus far.
Any chance you’ll be giving us a 2 year update? Thoughts on Detroit bankruptcy? Govt shutdown?
best advice ever!