A new semester has begun...

And so it begins as a another busy semester. We were able to go to church this morning together and have a quick lunch. Since then, we have been working on our respective lists trying to prepare for a fast approaching Monday that promises to be challenging.

Today at Willow there was a great sermon on the characteristics of a relationship that help determine the success of a marriage. Bill told a funny story about the book that he wrote with his wife about ten years ago. Apparently, a lot of churches use it for their pre-marital counseling workshops even now. Bill said that they have received hundreds of letters thanking them for the book. At this point in the story, I was thinking of all the happy couples who got married because of this book and wrote in to tell their sweet love story. Wrong. All of the couples who broke up and didn't get married were the ones that wrote in to say how much they appreciated the insight. That's a new marketing frame that I wouldn't have thought of...

L

Med School Semester 1: a look back

I have been woefully inattentive to all my cybersocial responsibilities for the last four months. I probably hop on facebook once every three weeks or so, I haven't blogged since August and...other stuff. It's been so long that I cannot remember what the proverbial "it" was anymore. At any rate I thought I would look back at the first semester. I expected medical school to be challenging, but it proved to be challenging in ways I was not prepared for. I discovered that I no longer learn the way I always have previously. Obviously, I understood that I could not learn everything, but at times it feels as though we learn <1% of what we need to know. It is just disconcerting and at time is can feel worlds away from "what I need to know as a doctor". Through the semester I made notes to myself about things to blog about. This was the list:
INFP
CAM
weight
Leettendance
I am not sure what all of this was supposed to mean anymore but I will try to tackle them briefly.... Lee and I went to a marriage class once a week. It was a lot of fun and one of the last activities was a myers briggs test. Lee corrected some of my answers to the personality test. But it turns out she was right...I just have negative perceptions of introverts for example. It is weird living with someone that knows you better than you know yourself.
CAM - I had intended to do a series on Complementary and Alternative Medicine...just because it is what I am asked about the most. I don't have the time to go into everything, but alternative medicine is interesting because it provides a medium to talk about conventional issues. For example, the central tenant of Chinese medicine is balance and moderation something I try to stress all the time.
My weight is one of my bigger personal struggles and I refuse to give hypocritical advice about weight loss, so I am fighting to return to and maintain a healthy weight...something I have not done since high school.
I always knew that my wife was very capable, but I suppose until recently I did not appreciate how capable. Fulltime student, parttime company executive, consulting, developing curricula, writing textbook reviews for international publications, president of an honor society, blogging, all while handling a substantially larger portion of the tasks around the house...it even seems like she has free time. I just go to school and I feel overwhelmed. There was genuine celebration when I passed all my classes. I suppose that a medical marriage isn't quite as challenging if at least one of the parties is THAT dynamic. If I think about how to attract a Hyperdynamic mate I will let you know.

JM