5 things I wish I had time to do in Medical School | My Life in Medicine

I had a great time with family during this weekend and I feel emotionally revived. With that let’s get on to this post about the 5 things I wish I had time to do in medical school.

Over time I have come to terms with all of the changes that we go through in medical school. Also about how they have affected and shaped the last 3 years. Even though I do not regret taking this path, there are times when I wish I had the time (and money) to do certain things that I used to do (and still enjoy doing) in my spare time. Some of these were my hobbies back in the day. Other were things I wanted to do before medical school but was unable to do.

Medical school is a journey in and of itself. And being honest, it has given me some pretty amazing experiences. Even though I have “lost” some of my prime years, I know eventually I will be able to do these things and so much more.

1. Reading

   

   I used to LOVE reading. For me it was entertaining, fun, and a way to get my mind off everything that was going on around me. My favorite genre was, and still is, teenage supernatural fiction. My favorite books were about vampires, witches, magic, and even angels. I read so many books during my summers in college, ahh the good times. Many times I would picked up a book in the morning and devoured it by night or the next day. I used to read until my vision was blurry. Although, now that I am in med school, I am sure that was NOT healthy for my eyes. Oh well too late now haha.

   The last book I read for my own pleasure was Fallen. It is a series about reincarnation, angels, and a forbidden love. I have the second book but have not gotten around to read it. To this day, I have a huge list of books I want to read. The problem now is I read so much all the time studying, I kinda never want to. I used to be able to read before bed. If I did it now I’d probably be up all night reading because, well, if it’s good I can’t put it down!

2. Traveling/Tourism

   

   One thing I see all of my non med school friends doing is traveling all over the world. When me and the husband were in college and had jobs, we used to plan trips all the time. We planned trips abroad and locally. We also loved going on road trips to see things we hadn’t seen from our beautiful island. Being honest, we have a travel list we hope to fulfill in the future. For now short, affordable trips is what is possible. I am fortunate enough to have traveled to Europe for my 15th birthday and I know the places I want to return to someday. In reality though, there is also so many more places I would like to see. At the top of my list is London, Thailand/India, Argentina, and Alaska.
   
   As for touring on the Island, I had never been to Culebra. We were hoping to go after I took Step 2CK. We also want to go to the trendy places like La Cueva Ventana, El Puente De Piedra, La Cueva del Indio, Bosque Seco de Guanica, Caja de Muertos, among many others. I have heard that 4th year is a lot more accommodating to free weekends. Sooo, I am looking forward to maybe checking some of these off the list during 4th year! We had a good start at the beginning of 2017. We got to go to the Sunflower Field in a nearby town and it was beautiful!

3. Taking cooking or baking classes

   I love food. Seriously. Food is one of the best pleasures in life, right up there with sleeping. In addition to eating it, I love cooking it. I am always looking for new recipes to try, and trying new flavor combination in the kitchen. Hate to admit it but I can watch food network for hours. I hope to one day be able to learn to cook like the chefs do. Aside from food, I love desserts, especially anything involving chocolate, and cake.

   I still remember many years ago, watching Paula Deen make a Baked Alaska, and dreaming of trying it during the cruise, and then missing formal dinner to go to a party the day they had the Baked Alaska. For this reason, baking lessons have also been on my radar for some time now. Even if I cannot take formal baking classes, my mother in law is a master when it comes to baking. I probably never will be as good as her, but we have always talked of me staying and learning several classic pastries from her. So far I haven’t had the time, but I remain hopeful that someday I will.

4. Learn another language

   

   To me there is something about knowing multiple languages that I find incredibly fascinating and sexy. I am basically bilingual since birth. Yet, I have always dreamed of learning other languages as well. I am especially fascinated by French, Italian, German, and Russian. At this point in my life, I don’t know that I can fully learn all 4 of those. Maybe I can learn 1 or 2 of them fully, and the others at a conversational level. I would be happy with that. My husband took some french a few years ago, and he couldn’t continue because of how time consuming it was. But we both look forward to take classes again in the future and expand from bilingual, to multilingual.

5. Learn more

   

   Now this one might come as a surprise. But I really do love learning about almost everything (except math and history). One of my biggest regrets is not taking an additional year in college or doing a minor. I went in with my goal of medical school and I worked to have my requirements and some electives that could help me along the way. I did take some classes that were university requirements that I loved, and that is when I realized I would have liked to learn more. Especially about literature. There is something about reading books, analyzing them, and writing about them that I find absolutely fascinating. I also would’ve like to take some more anthropology classes and some business classes.

Conclusion:

Reading back at this post I sound like such a nerd! But I don’t care, I learned to embrace being a dork, a nerd, etc long time ago and I am proud of it. I don’t want this post to sound like I am sad at my current situation, or that I feel like I haven’t lived, because that is not the case at all. During my high school and college years I did a lot of things, and I lived a very good life during those years. For that reason, now that I cannot do a lot of those things, I reminisce about them and wish I could do them more often.

I know in the very near future a lot of these will be possible little by little and I will once again feel like am living life. Eventually I wont feel like I’m wasting away in front of a computer doing 100 questions per day, and reading about all things medicine. I also would like to spend more time with my family and friends. As I get closer to the end of med school, it seems I am getting more chances to visit and take time off to go back home and reconnect with those that are important to us.

In the meantime, I have this wonderful corner of the internet to call my own. You can also read my thoughts on graduating medical school HERE.

What do you wish you had time to do in your current situation?  

Thanks for reading!

XO

Jani