Currently, I'm stuck in bed with a runny nose, ear canal drainage, a continuing medication regimen of penicillin, and possible halitosis. But last night, I finally celebrated a New Year's without an impending sense of stress for the new year with 50 of my closest relatives and seven bottles of Seagram's (and two liters of 7 Up). For the first time in about five years, I wasn't concerned about having to climb the AMCAS mountain or pandering to resumes, MCAT scores, GPAs or picking certain extracurriculars over others. This new year, I'm drinking till 2AM, eating sliders till 3AM and planning tuberculosis screenings for 8AM, there's a half-inch of snow and the wind chill's at -32C, there's bird flu and Pakastani insurgencies for the upcoming year, and I feel fine.
I do have the usual resolutions - of losing weight, getting more fit, keeping up correspondences with friends and family, actually looking for a relationship, hoping the girl doesn't care about my dancing skills. But I also realize that everything I put off from my senior year of college onto moving to Boston. I started to pick this year when I went on a relief trip to New Orleans during Spring Break, then actually had a Spring Break vacation going to a bachelor party in Miami, and then went to the Philippines in September. I have not travelled as much as I used to in my youth, and now, before the long nights of USMLE Board studying begin for me, I have technically three months to go travel, to experience new people, places ideas, and the serendipitious forces that have kept me alive these past 25 years. I'll also pick up recreational reading again, as with the status of airports, I'll probably have more free time to read in between traveling.
So first planned trip is an excursion to California to erase all my bad associations with that state (which actually only involve LA) and then to southern Europe (the Mediterranean coast, Northern Italy, possibly eastern Europe). If any one has more places or books to suggest, feel free.
To 2008.
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3 comments:
Important points:
1) I've seen you do a jig, so you're capable of dancing.
2) I suggest War and Peace if you haven't read it yet, since this will likely be the last time before retirement that you'll have the time needed to dedicate yourself to a book that size.
3) Supposedly, they're doing away with Step 1, starting with your entering class.
I think that there are number of awesome places in the US to see: Yosemite, Yellowstone (still haven't been myself, but I want to go someday), a lot of the California coast while you are here, the Rockies, Brice, Zion (again with the not having been but want to). Make sure that you get to the good cities in the US, too, San Fransisco, LA, DC, etc.
Anna, I don't consider LA to be on the list of good cities in the US. In fact, LA is the reason why I view California negatively, which means I need to see the rest of the state.
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