Life on the Other Side...

This wave of exams are past while others gather their forces just beyond the horizon.

I have IPA and chocolate pudding flavors still lingering on my tongue from breakfast, and I'm flitting through memories of last night's various after-parties. For me the night started and ended with good friends and good wine, enclosing a thoroughly fratish party somewhere in the middle. Not being an avid partier myself, I enjoyed watching from my plinth on the staircase: Beer Pong, Rock Band, and splash fights in the gene pool. If nothing else it was nice to watch these future doctors working as hard as chemically possible to forget the dense block of knowledge they'd just worked so hard to cram into their skulls.

The antioxidant cocktails folks were drinking - pomegranate juice and blueberry vodka - may not have been as health promoting as you'd expect from a group of young doctors. Although, with a mean life expectancy of 58 maybe that's all we can expect. But, back to the bookends: the friends and wine. There was hope there. After weeks of studying and stress culminating with an 8 hour scantron marathon, folks were letting the pendulum swing as far back from school as they could. For many this meant a sweet escape to oblivion and scholastic atrophy. And, really, good for them. They're the high passers of the bunch, and they deserve a break.

It was, however, refreshing to see where some folks let their pendulums drift when unencumbered by deadlines and expectations.

At the pre-party, our group unwound with home made wine and a gourmet meal prepared from the simplest of ingredients. Folks let me twist, crack and generally manipulate their spines and ribs, while another friend demoed the HVLA he'd learned from reading ahead in the manual medicine course book. There was music. There was dancing. There were articulations. Who could ask for more? It was nice to find health in this place in so many of its forms.

Be not mistaken, we are a vice-filled bunch. But, from the homespun recycled camp stove, to the pushing out of cars stuck in the snowstorm, to a good friend coming out to give us knuckleheads a ride home, I am more than satisfied that the future of healthcare rests in the hands of these friends.