Hi there!
I have so many posts in drafts, so many travel pictures I want to share (both from Aruba and my latest destination after that, Italy) but I wanted to briefly pop by and also talk about something else than traveling.
On Wednesday we have our bachelor graduation ceremony, so we will not only be officially titled as bachelors of medicine but will also get to visit the stage to celebrate our merits. Only that I haven’t been feeling too festive about it at all. I’m extremely proud of myself and of all my classmates for getting this far, but I’ve also been utterly terrified about the next steps! Realising just how exhausted I’ve been for the past multiple years and knowing how much harder the work will get is not a very comforting thought, and there’s oh so much work to do and oh so much responsibility to carry on our particular career path, both of which I’d currently rather not do. I’ve been playing with these thoughts in my head and talking about it with some friends and the wisest of them all, my grandma, and even though the masters (3 years worth of internships at different hospitals at different departments) still is terrifying my excitement for it at no point disappeared. I chose this career path because I genuinely love medicine, and diving neck deep in its interesting subjects. Whether I will or will not be able to carry the increasing workload with irregular schedules, that remains to be seen but as one of my friends said, I’ll never know if I don’t try! So, the current conclusion is still the same as before, to get back to education once my turn comes at the end of March 2023 (here in the Netherlands the start date of the masters of medicine is divided over large periods). So I still have quite some months to get more comfortable with my new study language Dutch (honestly probably the main reason for my terrified state – studying medicine is hard enough, but doing it in English and then again in Dutch does add another pickle), get some rest, find a home in which I could stay for more than 12 months, and create a routine that works for me and helps me to hold on to my energy.
Siena, 2016
Siena, 2022
So, on that note, as I did not turn my ship and sail away from medicine, I figured it’s a good time to rename the blog. I’m planning to keep on traveling as much as I can (and already have all kinds of great plans to be the traveling sort of a doctor) and if you’ve ever seen me travel you know I always travel light with all my belongings in a backpack, so I figured that would be fitting. And what more fitting than something that has to be in that backpack for my clumsy adventures and also in my school environment, bandages. So there you go, backpacks & bandages! Other than the name and the profile picture (from 2016 eh) no changes have been made – I still blog when the time’s right and about topics that I feel like blogging at the time. It is my public sort of a diary after all. I will also try and include some more medicine related things hence I usually get the most questions about those, but the rest remains to be seen.
For fellow stressed med students out there – it’s normal to doubt yourself but we’ve got this, we just have to try, and then if we really haven’t got this that’s also quite alright. I hope you’re all (med students and non-med students alike) doing well and as always, thank you for reading. x
Love, Anna
P.S. I’ve only studied medicine myself but I’m fully aware of the challenges and hard work of other careers too, so please do know that when I talk about medicine being tough I am not comparing it to anything else, just speaking about it as its own unit!
