Encouraged

Unfortunately there was no super exciting event planned for class today but we did still learn some very important things. We spend the first part of the morning class discussing the article we read the night before. The article is called "The Cost Conundrum" and it's written by Atul Gawande. It talks about a hospital in Texas that has the costliest health care yet not the healthiest patients. Doctors at that hospital gives their patients too many tests, unnecessary surgeries, and prescription drugs. When the issue was taken to the hospital's chief operating officer, she was clueless. She thought that the doctors only perform surgeries when needed. He also brought up the fact that doctors these days are taught to give patients more unnecessary care just to be safe. But there are those who owns part of the hospital or an imaging center, for example, and they order these tests so they get paid twice. Once for being the doctor and again when the patient uses their imaging center. 

I thought that things are pretty messed up in the medical field and it will take many, many, many, many, many years to fix. That is if someone comes up with a way to fix all the problems. Our group discussed about how greedy some doctors are for abusing medical care in order to have a double income. I said that if you want to make money then you should step away from the medical field, there's only room for those who truly love medicine and helping people. It makes me really angry to think about these terrible things that these doctors are doing. I have always thought of doctors as heroes, healers, and someone that you would want to be but now I don't feel that way towards every doctor. Of course with bad guys there are always good guys around. The Mayo Clinic is a great example of role model health care facilities. They put patients' needs above all else and that is what we need everywhere.

We spend the last part of the morning class talking about the pathway of someone pursuing careers in the health field. Naturally I need to go to college first before I can apply to medical school. While in college it is strongly recommended that I do a research project that I'm interested in, internships, shadowings, study abroad and extracurricular activities. Of course since I'm obsesses with going to medical school I knew about most of this stuff.   What I didn't know is what medical school would consist of. The first two years are spent pre-clinical style, meaning that is when you would take all your science classes. The second half is spent more clinical, so med students are exposed to different fields of medicine. So students spend a few weeks in primary care, neurology, pediatrics, OBGYN, and etc. Then after medical school you apply for your residency. Residency last for about 3-7 years depending on your field. After that you would have the option of doing a fellowship, which is recommended, and that last for 1-4 years. So yeah, I'll be at least 30 years old before I'm a licensed to practice doctor and I will have about $200,000 in medical school loans to pay off. So seriously, do not go into this field for money, only if you really will love it. As Confucius once said " If you choose a job that you love, you will never have to work a day in your life." I want that for myself so that's why I chose this path for myself.

We spend the after lunch class evaluating our stress level and how we deal with it both positively and negatively. We had an outside class because the weather was perfect and our room was too cold. The last forty-five minutes of class were spent relaxing. I got to show everyone my cool magic trick and it impressed them all. Then the TA, Vivian, suggested that we play a game called "Bird on a Perch". It involved you and your partner jumping on each other depending on if she said bird on a perch or perch on a bird. Kim tried to lift me by the waist but I was ticklish so we were the first to lose. The game got intense but everyone had lots of fun.

Mr. Mannix and Ms. Kronenberg came to visit us. We told her how we were doing and how much we enjoyed our classes. They both stayed to watch our Arete showcase. Since my Arete was origami, you can imagine how awesome that was to display compared to step or fencing. We stood on stage for about 30 seconds flapping our bird or spinning our tops. I had a boat so that was really fun to hold and not awkward at all. Please notice the sarcasm. I did enjoy my time in origami but I wished that we had put on a performance of some sort. Next week my Arete will be self-defense.

We had our neon themed dance tonight and it was awesome, way better than the dance held at my school. The dance room was beautifully lit with colorful disco balls and lights.

but it maintained a good level of darkness. As nice as it was, I'm not a party person so after a few minutes there I went to a separate room to play Apples to Apples. It's a game where you have to choose a noun card that best match an adjective card that is given.

I looked at tomorrow's schedule and it seems that they have a lot planned for us. I can't wait to have an extra hour of sleep and a full day of adventuring.