COMmitted 1st Meeting

As planned, we hosted all the married M1s at our house this Saturday night. Although several had to study, we still managed to get to know several other couples. As soon as the night began, it was easy to see how much in common we have as married couples. All of the husbands were already talking about their residency and fellowship choices regarding specialties and locations. And, the wives were already talking about all of the time their husbands are studying. All of our lives have similarly and drastically changed in the past two weeks.

At the white coat ceremony, my dad had words of wisdom to share with me as the wife of a medical student. He told me that it was important that I have my own accomplishments to be proud of. He said that a lot of spouses feel that they should also receive a diploma at the end of med school because they too sacrifice. Lucky for me, I should have my PsyD finished by then. But his advice is more than that. It's about finding the little things that make a difference and that you can be proud of. For example, one of the other wives has taken up baking. For her, she has a yummy product to show at the end of the day. This small accomplishment has a way of bringing the simple pleasures back into her life that is now mostly filled with stress.

It can be very easy to lose focus of your own accomplishments when you are supporting a spouse in med school. My hope is that COMmitted can remind of us of the reason that we sacrifice our time and energy. Whether we are spouses or med students, we can stick together and know that in the end lives will be saved and changed because of the efforts of our M1s.