As I write this, it’s nearly time to leave for a friend’s 40th birthday. I didn’t know what to write for the card so I was trying to remember some little joke from the first days of med school. That’s when it occurred to me that these friends, I have now known for more than half my life…
I’m finishing this after the dinner for my friend’s birthday and the whole experience had a lot of us reflecting on the decades of friendship. I’m not sure how common it is that you have a bunch of friends from university, then medical training and now as work colleagues that are in different fields but still see each other quite often (I’m working with my friend tomorrow morning as the anaesthetist for the list – they’re a surgeon). But it is nice to have that level of stability over the years.
In a way, this is one of the hidden perks of being a doctor: the years are long and so are the hours worked, but you do tend to spend a lot of it in the company of people who are likely to be your friends…
The theme of the night was just how much we’ve all had to “grind” to get to where we are and how people are planning to start aiming for that elusive work-life balance- another rarity in careers: being at a similar life stage around the same time…
It really got me thinking that we tend to know the flaws of any of the jobs/roles we do, but we should also pay attention to the unexpected benefits as well. I’m sure if I asked right now, you could give me 5 reasons why the role you have is not ideal, but how often do we pause to consider the unexpected ways it’s helped our life along?
In less reflective news, this week was super productive in getting some work done for the start-ups. i-scribe now has a working email funnel. The website is now a bit more accessible (I have some more work to do there) and generally, I’m getting a decent feel for how things are done. It’s a messy/chaotic experience, but it’s also FUN. I definitely do want to do more of this going forward!