Year 1...Done. Vitum Medicinus: 1/4 M.D.

"I don't know what to do with myself," my friend said over the phone the day after finals. "I don't have anything to go study."

He was serious. I felt the same way.

"Maybe I'll go read some second-year Anatomy," he offered.

Not an option, I told him. We met up, and proceeded to go to the beach and fall asleep on the sand. Then, when my parking ran out, we moved to another beach, and, well, fell asleep there, too.

That's right - I spent over an hour doing something other than studying, and was able to enjoy it. No thoughts of panic. No feeings of guilt.

My last couple of days have involved:

• going to the movie theatre for the first time in months (Knocked Up attempts to be a chick flick AND a comedy, and while it has a few good laughs, in the end it comes up short at both)
  
  
• attending the end-of-year party where everyone (except me, of course) partied hard and relaxed (I say not me because I was heeding the advice delivered to me in a text message from my mom: "Congrats on being done! Party easy." Love ya, mom.)
  
  
• saying goodbye to med friends who will be redistrubiting all around the world to do incredible things
  
  
• enjoying this beautiful city - driving around parks, laying on the beaches, wandering through forests
  
  
• and starting to re-establishing communication with my dear friends outside of medicine whom I have simply not seen for months, perhaps one of the worst aspects of this exam period. I saw my sister today for the first time in two months...and we live just a few blocks apart. Each time I try to explain what I've gone through (I'll detail it here in a bit). I hope they understand and don't simply think that I am avoiding them.

I start work on Monday, researching and writing Internet-based educational materials for a couple of emergency medicine docs. It will be nice to have evenings off, and to catch up on the countless posts and ideas that I've had for the blog. And July 17, well, let's just say I've got a bit of a surprise coming up. Stay tuned.

This summer should be fun. And relaxing.

Ahh, relaxing. Haven't done that in a while. Excuse me while I get back to it.

It's good to be done.