culture shock…

We are waiting on a Spanish interrupter and I am sitting trying to look busy while my attending and an the anesthesiologist talk. I am trying not to eavesdrop but they are talking right above me and its hard not to hear. They are talking about private schools in the area. They go on and on about the various pros and cons of each and various other attendings’ children who attend school X, Y and Z. The conversation moves on to Aspen. I shift uncomfortably in my chair. I will never be that stereotypical, American physician who sends their kids to private school, goes skiing in Aspen and drives a SUV. Its ironic really, here I am a doctor’s child, a third generation physician no less and such conversations make me uncomfortable. Its not that any of these things are inherently wrong I just seem to have very different priorities than most of my peers and mentors. Maybe its the navybrat, maybe its the wandering in Eastern Europe, maybe its my crazy hippee Christanity but for better or for worse I find myself in many ways in an alien culture of affluence and prestige that I am supposed to be excited about but am somewhat wary of.

On my first day of optho, I find myself explaining my life plan to an attending. I want to be a general pediatrician I explain. He asks me if I know how much the average pediatrician makes. I said yes. He looks at me strangely, you are too smart for that job, do a fellowship, this is a good medical school use your education wisely. I smiled and brushed off the comment but again was struck by how different my conception of using my education wisely was from this respected physician. It wasn’t that his ideas were wrong or less worthy, it was just very different from mine.

doctors yet again such strange people, I have much to learn of their ways before I ever understand them.