Only for a few more days can I smirk at my friends and say I’m 22, while they for some reason freak out about being 23. But, alas, in a few months’ time they will be turning 24 (bahahahaha). Now that we’re past sweet 16 and the legalizing power of 21, I appreciate being the youngest. I’ve never felt overwhelmed about becoming older. I’m not sure if it’s because I get to see my friends turn the age first and witness that they don’t implode or immediately start wearing mom pants, because I’m going to be in school until I’m 25 so I’m still kind of a kid, or because I just do care what age I am. Thirty sounds a little scary, but it’s 7 years off and the 29 things remaining on my “30 under 30” list prove I have a lot of living to do before then.
This week my roommate in Romania, Lindsay, asked me if I was ready to turn 23. I quickly and almost subconsciously responded that not much happened while I was 22, so what’s the difference in turning 23. After thinking back over this past year, I’m not sure what has to happen for my subconscious to think something happened. My gauge seems a bit broken.
At the time, my 22nd birthday seemed like nothing exceptional. All my roommates and I went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in Iowa City, 3 Samurai. Afterwards, we went back to our house and hung out like a million times before. Only a week and about 100 Mr. Clean Magic Eraser later, we moved out of our house and some out of Iowa City to begin our post-grad lives. Since my birthday dinner, my roommates (yes, I will still call you my roommates at my 90th birthday) and I have had only a handful of meals together. A night like my birthday last year would now be exceptional.
After watching my roommates leave Iowa City, I moved into my new condo, that I bought! Hey subconscious, isn’t that something? For the first time, I was my own landlord. I painted and decorated to my heart’s content and my kitten and I settled in. Then August rolled around and I began medical school, apparently no big deal according to my subconscious. While the hundreds of hours I spent studying are not memorable, a fact that is quite unfortunate for the USMLE, actually entering medical school, receiving a white coat, and taking the Hippocratic Oath are memorable.
This year also brought me the reason I created this blog and am writing this post: Romania. As I’ve said before, I would have never predicted living in Eastern Europe this summer. I have to pinch myself to remember I’m doing this as part of medical school. So frequently, images are conjured up of medical students in an almost prison existence only studying, eating, studying, eating, studying, studying, studying, and finally eating. While I’ve had my moments of panic, as my mom and my best friend Gabby can attest, I’ve remained a human (closely resembling the pre-med self) and have gotten to experience some fairly awesome non-prison-ish things.
22, sorry I didn’t give you the credit you deserved until now. You treated me quite nicely, so in return, I will literally carry a piece of you into 23, in the form of the cut I got on New Year’s Eve that has yet to heal. I will look more kindly on this next year and be thankful for every opportunity it brings. I already know some that’s in store: London and Liverpool with my mom, cheering my little sister on as she runs her first marathon, Dance Marathon 18 (FR, F-yeah), finding a few great weekends to spend with my friends, my older sister moving closer to me (fingers crossed), celebrating after the USMLE step one, and beginning my clinical years of medical school. But, to make sure my subconscious thinks I’m doing something this next year, I will accept and do 23 dares this year. Let me know if you have a dare for me. Just follow these three rules…
1. Nothing extremely gross
2. Unless you want to fund it (which I would graciously accept), it has to be able to be done on a med student budget
3. I’m a vegetarian – this is not an invitation to dare me to eat meat
To get the dares to me use any social media you would like, comment below, email me (Kaitlin.m.flannery@gmail.com), Facebook me, or tweet me. As of today, you can’t Google+ me, haven’t decide if I should take the plunge.
Check back on Monday for my Italy post and have a great weekend!
a dare--blog at least once a week for the entire year
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