All done!

Today was my last day at my elective. I had a great experience...and it was nice to stay with my mom and visit her a bit more. These past few years haven't been easy for visiting family, but I take what I can. My fellow classmate 'Hiccups' reminded me of the "remember the feeling the day you got your acceptance letter" speech. I remember alright. Picture this: me, crying on my kitchen floor feeling so relieved that I didn't have to work at a job that I hated anymore and could do the thing I dreamt about doing. I called everyone I knew. No one answered because it was the middle of the day. I had to stew by myself until someone called me back an hour later!!!! But I was happy. That does feel like so long ago. Until today, when I realized why I am doing this.

As I was getting ready to leave my preceptors office this afternoon, his assistant gave me a piece of paper. My preceptor told me that this was sent to him by email and that he wanted to pass it along to me. It was from a patient I had seen the previous day who wanted to pass along a message to me. She said that I was "very professional yet warm and personable. My excellent manner with patients made her feel at ease" and she thought that this would help make me an excellent doctor. She went on to say that she wanted the clinic and me to know that I was doing a great job so far! I am not intending to toot my own horn, but I am sure that my classmates can agree that it is moments like this that mean the most to us. To know that we haven't tortured ourselves over the past few years for nothing. Or for the grades, or the praise from our instructors. Comments like that from patients keep us going...well, me at least.