Positive coping

[houseelf]

You're probably thinking: "hey, this girl just joined and now she is a moderator?" This came about after reading some of the posts and starting to feel down about ...well everything!



Don't get me wrong, I believe there is nothing more cathartic and purifying than sending your troubles into the void of cyberspace, but we need to temper this with some of our joys. I've never been a moderator and I'm relatively new to message boards. I don't even know that much about technology, so please bear with me.

But I think everyone benefits by releasing your joy as well. (O.K., the cynics among you are now calling me little miss sunshine.) But I'll start. Hopefully, it will encourage you to reflect upon the blessings, joy, hope, and laughter you find throughout your day. We all need to remind ourselves how very truly lucky we are. So please, don't leave this newbie all alone in her attempts to join the group!

The way that I've coped with 2 years of medical school in a small, isolated Midwestern town? Friends. I have made some of the most wonderful friends here. I am saddened by the fact that we are all about to scatter, but the friends I've made are the type that I'll be friends with always (you know how you can tell that type of thing about some friendships). We've shared feelings of frustration with the demands of medical school, advice, caring ears to vent to. We've made it through 7 finals weeks, Step 1 of boards, the separation of one set of parents, the total indifference of another set,the death of my father, a visit from my mother-in-law, an unexpected pregnancy, and a planned one with some potential problems (that turned out fine). We've celebrated birthdays (both our own and those of the babies that have joined the group), the excitement of getting the 3rd and 4th year rotation sites that we wanted, the end of the first year of school, and any number of beautiful spring or summer days by gathering in front of a grill with food to share. Soon we'll celebrate the end of the second year with a kind of bittersweet celebration as we all begin to scatter. We are about to say goodbye to one member of the group (the one with the unexpected pregnancy) as she moves to Phoenix a month earlier than her husband. The baby is due right as we are all moving & they decided it would be best to not have her traveling across the country on her due date (imagine that!).



It was more than a little tough coming to Kirksville as a spouse older than most of the others. Us "older" ones kind of banded together. We've all verbalized how we wouldn't have made it without each other. THere's no doubt in my mind of the truth of that statement from my end.



Wendy
Edited by: wkelley2001 at: 6/23/01 1:34:09 pm