Wow, it is November already, and I have officially finished my 4th year of Med School. I have also missed a fair number of months of articles (my bad…). What a year it has been! So to get y’all up to speed, since last writing an article I have finished/survived 8 weeks of General Surgery followed by 4 weeks in Healthcare of the Elderly, a few weeks of Public Health and rounded the year off with Addiction Medicine.
Way too much has happened to find one life lesson and write a whole post about it, I have learned so much more than I can express, so to sum up my year’s experience here are 10 lessons I learned:
1. People are stupid, but Jesus loves us anyway.
I could really just end the list here.This truly is my new motto, as most of my friends will attest to. It applies to every situation and issue you have come against this year. Humans do a lot of dumb stuff, and cause ourselves and each other a lot of difficulties. Thankfully God is smart, and also loves us all even when we do dumb stuff.
2. Adulthood really just means you get better at acting like you know the things
We’re all just making it up as we go along. Don’t worry, none of us know what we’re doing, but the longer you live the more often you are able to think ‘Oh, this has happened before, I know how to deal with this’.
3. I can’t always be right
For a chronic overachiever this is a hard one to admit, but I have realised that being wrong is sometimes right, and happens fairly often. I can’t learn all of medicine, I can’t memorise the textbook, and I don’t often know what God has planned – I will make mistakes, I will be wrong, and I will keep learning and trying.
4. Feelings are good, even when it hurts
It’s a fact of life that we will at times feel sad, or angry, or hurt, or lonely; ignoring the feelings doesn’t do us much good. It’s ok to feel things and it’s ok to share that with others – in fact I’ve found it to be a pretty good idea.
5. I would be lost without my friends
You’d think I might know this one already, but I have been shown time and time again this year how vital my friendships are and how valuable it is to let someone into both your joys and struggles. To all my friends; who help me study by sharing their notes, who are amazing at listening, who can always make me laugh, who will be honest even when it’s hard, who let me cry on your shoulders, who pray with and for me – Thank you.
6. Spaghetti and cheese toasties are the best midnight snack
What else can I say, this is truth.
7. Running away is nice while it lasts, but the world just waits for you to get back
As appealing as it is to move to Guatemala and avoid all your problems, that’s not usually the best option. Turns out most issues don’t go away when you ignore them. Sucking it up, surrendering it all to the Lord, getting on with life and facing things head on is generally a better system.
8. I don’t know how to keep plants alive.
As much as I would love a pet, I need to figure out how to hit the balance between forgetting to water the plants and drowning them before I take on that responsibility. I bet you are feeling really confident in me being a doctor in 2 years time…
9. Awkward conversations are never as bad as you think they will be.
There will always be things you need to talk about with people that you would just rather not, but I’ve realised that the more I just do it the less awkward those conversations get. Generally things are worse if I try to avoid the conversation so I ought to just bite the bullet and talk about it.
10. Even if everything fails, with God things will still be good.
In all the stresses and pressures this year brought with it, a favourite game became ‘what’s the worst thing that could happen?’. Turns out that life is so much more fun when I am able to acknowledge all that could go terribly wrong, smile and know that God’s love is so much bigger than that. After all, people are stupid but Jesus loves us anyway.
So there you have it; some of the many lessons I learned over the year. I would love to hear some of yours, please feel free to let me know in the comments. Thanks for sticking with me this year, and here’s to a lot more fun and leaning, after all, it’s only November!
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