Onward and Upward

 I’m sitting on a plane to Japan, officially done with my first lab rotation.  That’s 11 weeks down, 389 weeks to go.  To celebrate being 2.75 % done, I’m vacationing with Katie in Japan. 

Sidenote - this raises the question, how much bigger do we get with the celebrations?  After finishing year one, dog?  After finishing year two, kid?  After finishing the program, house party headlined by Walk the Moon, K’naan, or Danna Nieto’s future band? 

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Anyways, here are two quick things I learned in the pre-M1 summer lab rotation:

1) I love science. 

I sometimes forget that.

For my first lab rotation I worked with Phil Howe.  His lab studies how cancer spreads all over your body. 

yeah, I'm about 30% from the line

The upside - Phil lets his students roam free, which is daunting, but I wanted that freedom more than anything. 

I wanted to find a lab where I could put myself to the test and see if I was more Kobe Bryant or Paul Pierce.  Sidenote - The breakdown: both guys think they’re the best player on the court.  Kobe has five rings and is a top ten player all-time.  Pierce has a couple rings but isn’t quite a historic player.  There’s also the possibility that I’m Jamal Crawford –same confidence level as Kobe/Pierce but 2.75% as good. 

I love comparing myself to basketball players.

The downside – it’s a huge pain to pick an interesting scientific question, there is SO MUCH BS out there. 

I spent the summer scouring the cancer literature, following big-time researchers on twitter, and talking bullshit with scientists to figure out which scientific questions are actually interesting. 

So far.. I have no idea.  Good thing I have 389 weeks until I can get a real job. 

2) Taking time off between undergrad and med school is CLUTCH. 

I’ve always been young for my grade.  I couldn’t drive until my senior year in high school, and I didn’t turn 21 until my senior year of college!  But I met my three MD/PhD classmates, and they’re all straight out of college.  A part of me is jealous that they get to start two years before me. 

At the same time, here’s what I did between graduating Kenyon (June 2010) and starting at MUSC (May 2012). 

good times

Moved to a city, Portland, OR, where I didn’t know anybody

Learned to ride a bike

Leased my first grown up apartment

Got married to the most beautiful woman in the world

Started writing/launched sidenote

Ran two marathons – Portland by myself, and Eugene with my friend Amulya

Lead two bible studies

Visited (on leisure) DC, NYC, Philly, Denver, San Francisco, and Worland, Wyoming

Those two years were crucial for my long-term survival.  I was lucky in Portland to pick up hobbies like writing, and to start a family with Katie.  Hopefully that’ll keep me from my biggest fear – being a boring student whose entire life is med school. 

See you on the other side,

from ken