We Don't Need No Education

The big things I have been doing during the past month are helping my son with his school projects, and obsessing over the fact that I'm going to have to apply for jobs soon.

Regarding the first topic:
My first grader has had a couple of school projects that have reminded me how much I dread school projects. I always hated doing homework (funny for someone who has been in school/training for 30 years, huh?), and hated it even more when we were asked to come up with an actual project of some sort. I was fine with reading assignments, worksheets, even papers. But anything artistic or creative conjured up feelings of dread. As my husband had once said to me, "I am the creative one; you are the compliant one." How true it is. I like to learn things in an organized manner -reading chapters in order, outlining them, then applying my newly found knowledge. I am not good at coming up with my own original ideas. When I was in 5th grade, we were assigned to come up with our own original invention. I remember thinking to myself, "If I were creative enough to come up with my own invention, I wouldn't still be in 5th grade, would I?" But somehow, this is a common assignment. I thought it was ridiculous. Most every invention I saw was either useless, unoriginal, or thought up by an adult. That is what happens when you force the creation of an invention. Good inventions are invented out of serendipity or out of necessity, not in a 5th grade classroom. BTW, my invention was a guillotine -like vegetable cutter. Nice, huh? Even "As Seen on TV" rejected it.

All kidding aside, I know my limitations. I am good at lists, both making them and memorizing them. I can comprehend and utilize very difficult texts and formulas. I am organized and anticipate well. But thinking outside the box is not my forte. I am not artistic, creative, or original. I'm okay with that. My hats off to those of you who are. You make this world a much more interesting place.

Back to my son's projects . . . His big project entailed being "Star of the Week." In this day and age of "Every body is a winner. No one is a loser," elementary schools throughout our area seem to be implementing this activity. Each classmate gets to be star of the week for one whole week, during which he/she gets to do special activities and play a special role in the classroom. First, he has to conduct a science experiment. So he and I looked for ideas on the Internet. I perused the lists of items needed for each experiment, and suggested to my son those experiments that I thought we could do with the items in our kitchen. We tried one experiment after another, only to have my son veto them for one reason or another: this one had been done by someone else; the next one was not spectacular enough; this one wasn't working right. All over my kitchen were baking soda, toothpicks, cups and bowls of water, aluminum foil, wool socks, thread, film canisters, vinyl records (remember those?), Special K, and lots of other stuff I had scavenged from the nooks and crevices of my house. After hours of exhausting futility, we finally decided on the infamous volcano, that, surprisingly, only one other person had done back in August. My son wasn't too thrilled with repeating the experiment, but I tried to sweeten the deal by encouraging him to add his own personal touch to the volcano. He decided to decorate it with dinosaurs and make it look like a scene from the Jurassic period. We did our practice runs at home a couple of times, and it worked out pretty well. I packed up the materials into a large disposable Glad ware container that had everything in it, and sent him on his way. Apparently it went well. The volcano erupted, the kids thought it was cool, it made a mess (essential for any first grade science experiment), and none of the mess made it back home. My son and I were both pleased.

Another thing he had to do was make a poster about himself, which was fun. He did all the work; I just acted as the sounding board. We also got to go to lunch with him at school and bring his class treats -as if it were his birthday or something. Overall, he had a good "Star of the Week." Plus, he had snow day in the middle of the week :)

Regarding the second topic:
I am in the second half of my 3rd year of a 4-year residency, so I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I am nervous and anxious about the next phase of my life. This has been on my mind a lot lately. The class ahead of me is finishing up; they've each signed contracts for jobs and are ready to go out into the real world. I guess I'm next in line. It's a nice feeling, but at the same time, I question whether I am ready. While I feel confident about the knowledge and skills I have acquired over the past three (or more) years, I also know that there is a lot that I still don't know. I realize that I will never know everything, but have I learned "enough" to get by? What am I going to do when a patient is crashing, and I don't have a supervisor to look to for the answers? Will I be able to come up with them own my own? This ain't no exam or quiz . . this is somebody's life, somebody's loved one. I owe it to all my future patients to be excellent at my job. Who will help me build MY volcano?

Panicking aside, I am starting to look for jobs. Crazy, huh? Those of you who have known me know that I have been in school/training since I was 5 years old. I'm thinking of what else I can go back to school for, preferably something without homework or creative projects this time.