It’s application season yet again! As you are submitting your applications for medical school, I just submitted my application for residency. With all the personal statement and deadlines we have to meet, it can be hard to balance your home life with your work life.
As a medical student, each month I do a rotation in a different hospital. This constant uprooting can be stressful or exciting, depending how you process it. I am married and have a dog who we treat like a firstborn child, so it can get frustrating to be on away rotations and only be home on the weekends. When I am home, I often still have assignments and presentations to complete. I think you all can relate in many ways, but if not, then consider this a forewarning.
Another way to look at things is that when I am busy all week long on away rotations, doing rounds and making treatment plans during the day, and reading up on my patients’ diseases at night, it makes coming home on the weekends something to look forward to. The spare time I spend with my spouse is usually spent doing fun things – eating out, going to the park, exercising, cooking together. It’s almost like dating again. Work hard, play hard, right?
The movement of being a rotating medical student isn’t always easy, but it is also exciting. Being at a new location each month, getting to know new people and learn the styles each physician has, makes me more versatile. I can pick and choose what I like about the physicians I work with, so when the time comes, I will reject the bad aspects and keep the good ones in my own practicing skills.
Throughout your medical school career, you will constantly have to battle the clock as you balance your work and home life. Time management is going to be your key to success, so start practicing now. Block out times for work, and make sure to schedule times for play, family, and alone time. However you set up your schedule, do your very best to stick to it. If you go over or under, don’t beat yourself up. Get up and keep going. This is the secret to success in medicine.