Graduation

Today is day number four since earning my Doctor of Medicine degree. Of course I don't feel any different, and I think there was more hype leading up to my high school graduation. Strange, considering this is a degree I can actually do something with. 

But I guess I couldn't have gone to college without graduating high school, and I couldn't have started medical school without college - so they are all linked. 

Maybe high school graduations are easier to celebrate because there is a very established routine. The community where I grew up expected senior pictures, which would then be used to make graduation announcements/invitations. The invitations would all reference weekends in May, which are thus expected to be busily spent attending various graduation receptions. The receptions are easily hosted by parents in houses or community buildings.. as opposed to college, where such large gathering spill out of dorm rooms or "bachelor pads." 

Another contributing factor to graduation from high school being a more celebrated event could be that there were more people paying direct attention to what I did when I was in high school. Or, if people were not paying attention to the four years during high school, they may have been involved in the 14 years preceding it. The celebration of high school graduation is not only for accomplishments achieved during high school, but for all the years of life preceding it as well. 

With hype or without, graduation from medical school is an accomplishment to be proud and excited about - which I unfortunately had to be reminded of in the staging area before commencement. With all the stress of corralling my family from place to place on graduation day, I'd started to forget the purpose of the day. When my friend asked me how I was feeling and my response was less than enthusiastic, he reprimanded me and suggested I take a step back to look at what we'd done. What did we do? We studied really hard to learn facts and details. But everyone knows that. What else? We spent time reflecting on many of the ethical issues and questions that are presented to physicians daily. We practiced writing patient encounter notes, long and time consuming at first, little by little becoming more efficient. We put ourselves in uncomfortable situations because we needed to learn. We bumbled through presentations, hoping that repetition would make us less bumbly. We changed our sleep schedules to match whatever hospital schedule was needed, and frequently woke up at hours that other young adults see as bedtime. 

Maybe most importantly, we learned that we will always be learning. It is easier for me to look ahead and recognize all that is left for me to learn than it is to look behind and recognize all the knowledge I have gained. Talking to Liz, who just started medical school this year, is helpful for realizing how much I have learned. It is especially encouraging after a rough day "at work" where it felt like I didn't know or recognize anything, to come home and explain something - thus validating that the 4 years of study were not, in fact, wasted.