Wednesday, January 30, 2002

Woods are lovely dark and deep

The semester is indeed in full swing and the first bout of exams is over. I went to my Neuro (Neuroscience) teacher to get my grade. He was very serious and asked me if I was having difficulty with the materiel. I got very nervous. He then broke into a smile and showed me my grade: 100%. I was pleased. In genetics, I got 94% and in epidemiology, 93% too. Seems like it was a good day.

Yesterday morning I read 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening' by Robert Frost. I always read a poem or quotation the day after the exam before I start again, as a moment of reflection on the evaluation of past efforts. The last 3 lines have come to embody my attitude towards this whole affair. The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

I am also exhorted by this quotation by William Carlos Williams, [1883-1963]:
Look, you're not out on a four-year picnic at that medical school, so stop talking like a disappointed lover. You signed up for a spell of training and they're dishing it out to you, and all you can do is take everything they've got, everything they hand to you, and tell yourself how lucky you are to be on the receiving end--so you can be a doctor, and that's no bad price to pay for the worry, the exhaustion.
Source: Williams, William Carlos. Letter to Dr. Coles. In Ballantyne J (ed). Bedside Manners: An Anthology of Medical Wit and Wisdom. London: Virgin Books; 1995, pp. 6-7.
Alright. I won't subject you to more of that.

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