Summer Vacation
[Time Shifted Post: This post was a quick one that I wrote before going to visit my parents. It was basically a recap of that first week or so of summer vacation. Nothing really super about this post, but I didn't have time to proof it when I wrote it. Hope everyone out there is doing well.]
Summer research has already started getting underway, but I don’t start it full time until next week. I wish I had come up with a little more organized plan to enjoy these couple of weeks out of school, but I had spent the previous few weeks trying not to think about summer in order to get my studying done.
Last week, I worked on the apartment for a little bit getting some spring cleaning done. The mess that was my desk is now completely under control, and desk II is back to being our dining room table. Admin cat has been enjoying watching my toils.
We had a spot of bad news with our previous living space which we have had on the market for sale for a while now. Wife and I had a pretty good offer come in, and unfortunately it fell through. If anyone out there is thinking about medical school, start getting rid of responsibilities like this. I have been trying to avoid renting because it is one more thing to worry about, but in this market it is the best option. Hopefully, we can rent it for now and then get it back on the market and sold by the time I am in residency and be done with the whole mess.
I have had a few meetings about my summer research since school got out of school. It was useful as it has taken me a while to get into the right frame of mind. My mentors have been guiding me along for a little bit, but it wound up taking some time and going through their old literature review materials before the right frame of mind sank in. Now that I understand our approach a little more clearly, I am going to update their literature review to look for anything recent and get things under way. I’ll be ready to hit the ground running.
I am trying to branch out a bit with my research. I have met one person who works in a different hospital as a statistician. I want to take an afternoon and meet with her to discuss our methods and get another take on how we are examining our results. I also will be getting some shadowing opportunities which is required of everyone in the program whether their research is in the clinically-based or not.
You don’t get to do everything during a break, so you try to find the stuff you most want to do, but don’t sweat what you can’t. You are supposed to be on a break after all.
You don’t want to return to school or work more tired than you left it.
