If you've been reading my blog for some time, you'll probably remember me mentioning Mirth Control before, but if you're new to my blog, I'll explain. Mirth Control is an annual event at my med school where each class puts on a comedic video or skit roasting the medical school experience. Its a wonderful tradition which allows medical students to take a step back from studying or working, and just laugh about how ridiculous this whole process is. For all four years, I have co-directed our class' skits. While at times it was a stressful, frustrating job, there were so many other times it was so much fun to do. This year, as MS4s, we were in charge of hosting the whole event, which was quite a task, but I think we threw a pretty good show. :) I'm really proud of everything we did over the four years, and especially what we did this year. I'm really glad the show went well, but I have to say I'm even more glad its over, so I can start working on moving out. Even though all of the work I put into co-directing this each year had absolutely no bearing on my resume, I'm still really glad I did it.
Class of 2014
Well, if you are in need for some laughs, or if you'd just like to see what the heck "Mirth Control" is all about, one of my class mates was kind enough to put together a Youtube playlist of a lot of the clips from this year's show. Our class skit was a spin-off of the Hunger Games, but instead it was the "Match Games." Enjoy!
Here is one of my favorite clips - its the different "districts"
of the medical school training for the "Match Games"
Right now is the end of Day 11 of boards studying. Today was my first day off. I planned on doing 8-10 hour days, and I have actually ended up doing 8-12 hour days, because I am slow to get through things. I'm a little behind on practice questions, but that's okay, because I have some cushion "review" time built in at the end of the study period before my test.
Studying has been alright... some days I am super focused and productive - other days, it's a struggle to get through the material. At times, I have been relying on music to keep me awake, alert and focused. Some of my power albums have been:
1) The Foreign Exchange "Leave It All Behind"
2) Bonobo "Black Sands" (thanks to BF who introduced me to Bonobo)
3) The Civil Wars "Barton Hollow"
4) Yo-Yo Ma "Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone"
5) Bon Iver "Bon Iver"
I probably listen to each one of those albums at least once per day, so I'm kinda itching for new study music... So if you have any suggestions, holler.
One thing that has kinda sucked about this study period is that I haven't really seen much of my friends. Everyone is off doing their own study thing. I see BF everyday though, so at least I have him to keep me sane :). On Friday was our annual "roast" of the school, aka Mirth Control. This year, since everyone was busy studying for boards, we decided to do something quick and dirty, so I helped put together a "Shit MS2s Say" video.
So I know this post is super scattered (I have basically been holding all my thoughts in until I had some free time to blog) but one last thing: I found my third gray hair the other day! AHH! I'm getting old. I'm 23. This is what med school does to you, I guess?
This year, for the annual UC Davis Wine Auction (a benefit for the non-profit student-run clinics), my friend Y and I decided to perform a little set together. In case you don't know Y, he is one of my favorite study buddies, and he is a genius on the keys. The two of us practiced every day at lunch for the couple of weeks leading up to the event, and our performance turned out okay, I think!
Practice (Notice the weird-ass sculpture hanging in front of our school in the background)
Funny story about the performances... There were several group performances by med students, and the week before the event, we realized that three different groups were all performing "Someone Like You" - Adele, including us! It actually happened to be the first song we started practicing, so by the time we heard everyone else was performing it too, we were getting a little sick of it, so we abandoned it for a different song. We did:
"Ordinary People" - John Legend
"Nearness of You" Norah Jones
"Yellow" - Coldplay
"At Last" - Etta James
It was so much fun working together. Also, I just love singing, so I had a blast with the whole thing. Here are our songs on youtube!
Ordinary People
Nearness of You
Yellow
At Last (the still image for this one is kinda funny...)
Another year gone by, another year of my youth spent buried in books, but another year closer to my lifelong goal of becoming a doctor. Okay okay, so I don't spend all of my time studying. I try to keep a good balance, and I think I do a pretty good job. And I still love what I'm doing. Sometimes I just like to be dramatic.
2011, overall, was a year of growth and discovery in my personal life, a year of cyclic burn out and energization in my professional life, and a year of prolonging the delay of my future "gratification". Now that 2011 has come to a close, here is a recap of some of the highlights (and lowlights?):
The year I shadowed OB/Gyn's in jail and in L&D several times, falling even more in love with women's health
The year I went to Vegas with my med school buddies...
... Then went again with my sorority friends...
... Then went again-again with my sorority friends
And apparently, I just keep wearing the same dress
The year I rode Amtrak all the way from San Diego to Sacramento all by myself
The year I took up a new hobby and ran my first half marathon (the farthest I have run to date)
The year I became a student leader for reproductive rights through Medical Students For Choice
The year I traveled to Baltimore, MD for the MSFC Annual Meeting
The year my "UCLA relationship" ended (which subsequently allowed me to discover the triple threat of comfort food: egg rolls, shapes mac & cheese, and wine)
The year I tried online dating, and dated a ninja turtle
The year I went on a fantastic Eurotrip with my family
The year I went to Hana's beautiful wedding in Hawaii
The year my grandma scared the crap out of us all when she had her TIA
The year my sister unexpectedly had to have her ICD replaced
The year I helped write and direct a nerdy med school video
The year I rediscovered how much I love to sing
Well, that sort of sums up a lot of 2011 for me. I'm excited for 2012: I think it's gonna be a good one.
This last Friday was Mirth Control - a school wide roast of everything med school/medicine related. Each class puts on a skit/video and they are judged by a few faculty (the 4th years always win). I am one of the directors of the class of 2014's production, and while it took up a lot of my time the last few weeks, it was so worth it! We lot a lot of our classmates in the video and the final product turned out really funny (I think), and at least we really impressed the rest of the school even though we didn't win. I wasn't able to be at the actual event since I was already enjoying my Vegas Vacation, so I missed out on the other class' skits. Anyway, here it is! I hope you like the song I wrote/sang (Anatomy Sabotage Song) hehe... Enjoy:
*the premise behind our video is that since med students are always hanging around the Medical Education building ("MedEd") at all hours of the day, it becomes a sort of "club"/social scene. This is our take on that.
