It was late evening before the Christmas break, when I got a message from my good friend Corin Raymond telling me he really wanted me to check out this song he was working on about having a conversation with his doctor. I was on my sixth 26-hour call shift in 2.5 weeks and told him that when I received the message.

“Wow, you’re really in there!” he said. “I can’t understand why medicine would want to make people work for 26 hours. It seems so counter-intuitive to being rested and resourceful. But hey, I’m no doctor! I just have one in my song is all.”

I was finally able to join Corin’s Red Velvet Twilight Room (aka: his Patreon account space) and watched the videos where he shared his song writing process for a powerful and multi-layered song he wrote called – The First Hundred Years are the Hardest. As Corin’s doctor tells him in the song:

Corin l’m gonna tell you something
I learned in pre-med
He looked at me
over his bi-focals and said
The first hundred years are the hardest
After that it’s all a downhill ride
But the first hundred are a mountainside
-- Corin Raymond 

I tell ya, med school has certainly felt this way at times. As I write this post, it’s hard to believe that there are only nine weeks of clerkship left (with three weeks of interviews in the middle). In some ways, med school has gone by so quickly and in other ways, like when on 26-hour call, that it’s felt as though I’ve been at it for 100 years. Training to be a physician during a pandemic has certainly been a strange time. However, when I think about alternatives of what I might have been doing instead, although it’s been hard, it’s actually a pretty good way to have spent this time. Given most of us can’t get out and do so many of the things we love anyway, putting in the long hours means not missing out on much (except sleep).

So as I submit my applications for residencies and wait to see how things shake out, I’ll end this post with a huge thank you to my mentors, my friends and family who were my emotional support during medical school, friends who were my study buddies, my mom who takes care of Joni while I’m at work, my dad whose strength I draw from even though he’s no longer here, and to my good friends Corin Raymond and Carolyn Mark whose med school recordings helped keep me entertained, learn medicine, and have MANY much needed laughs along the way.

In many ways, I know residency will be so much better than medical school but thinking about more years of training, I’ll end with another verse from Corin’s new song:

Doc, I been so overwhelmed
I don’t where to start
But it’s good to hear I’m nearly
halfway through the hardest part
-- Corin Raymond 

I’m not actually overwhelmed right now, in fact I feel the light at the end of the med school tunnel is tangible and I’m looking forward to seeing where this ever winding road takes me next. I guess you could say I’m also nearly halfway through the hardest part!

To help you appreciate how Corin & Carolyn have helped keep me entertained and learn medicine, you can check out my post Med School Notes by Musicians.

My good friend Jolene (aka Little Miss HIggins) was a late edition to the med school notes by musicians. I recruited her during my Obs/Gyne block feeling quite certain I would not be able to talk either Corin or Carolyn into recording the subject matter!