Reflections on Third Year

So third year ended 2 weeks ago for me, and I've yet to write about it. You think after an "accomplishment" such a surviving third year I'd be bursting with feeeeeelings about the matter. After all, I briefly delved into the realm of the introspective when I finished first year, and I got damn near teary-eyed after taking down Step 1. After third year, I don't know. I don't have that same sense of accomplishment, and the same sense of transitioning onto something new. Am I glad I no longer have to rotate through specialties I have no interest in showing faux-interest along the way? You betcha. But I didn't wake up the day after my OB/Gyn shelf feeling any older or wiser. I think part of that is because the transition to the next level of competency tends to come throughout third year rather than after it. Before my last shelf exam, I was thinking a lot about my first rotation on peds and the student I was then was very different from the student I am now. But that change was a slow process that had little to do with the MS label after my name. Basically, I can see the progress I made this year, but don't really feel like I "survived" anything. Maybe it's because I really enjoyed third year and the things that are historically dreaded about it weren't that big of a deal to me. Maybe it's because I'm going into a surgical field and I know my days of sleep deprivation, early mornings, and busy days are far from over. And you know what, I'm cool with that.

That being said, good riddance to the third year label. It'll be nice to not have people automatically assume you know nothing and can do nothing just because you're a third year medical student.

Anyways, it was a good week off, and now I'm on to the greener pastures of fourth year, the "best year of medical school."