Thoughts about where I am and what I want.

Every one in a while, I like to take the time to reflect and thing about the things that I wish I could have done.  As second year moves forward, the realization that I am actually going to be a doctor really sets in.  I'll be taking the first part of my boards (YIKES), seeing real patients, and actually work in a hospital in a few short months!  Frankly, I'm terrified.  I'm excited, because I always get glowing feedback about my personality and competence when it comes to interacting with patients, but I still feel so ignorant.  I guess that's all just a part of my training.

I digress.  Because I understand that I've been locked in and I'm starting to face that fact, I find myself daydreaming about the other things in life that I'm interested in.  Lately, I've been watching Chopped non-stop and I realized that before I die, I would really like to get some formal training in cooking.  For a home chef that has really only had her own kitchen for about 3 years, I think I do pretty well in the kitchen.  My boyfriend is well fed and I can cook up most things that come with directions.  However, I am completely self-taught.  My mother never taught me to do anything and basically everything I cook results from a combination of extensive online research and the ability to follow directions well.  I just love cooking.  I love the instant gratification of making something delicious.  So much of my life is studying and you really only see the end result as a few numbers on a computer screen once a month.  It's kind of anti-climactic, to say the least.  I have recently purchased this mixer:














Suffice to say, I am BEYOND excited!  But also a few hundred dollars more broke.  Since I started really hardcore dieting/exercising, I've been cooking a lot more of my own food, and I think this will help.  To me, cooking is just such a rewarding experience that lets me make myself and those I love happy almost instantaneously.  You really can't beat that feeling.

Next, I want to get back into writing.  I've only dabbled in it a few times, but if there was some semi-structure online fiction writing course, I'd be on that in a minute.  I think I'm a decent writer.  I have a good vocabulary and I try to balance out the structure of my sentences.  I think I'm good at descriptions without being overly wordy, but I do find myself becoming redundant at times.  Perhaps I am just sick of writing research papers.  Man, I miss my literature classes.

What else do I want to do...I want to pick up piano again, for sure, and I want to do some art.  I always get a couple of projects in with Dusty every year, but I have done anything creative in 6 months and I'm started to feel a little artistically constipated.  I feel like the only art I do now is on my face with eyeshadow >.<

So I guess that summarizes all of my non-medical aspirations.  I did find a website that provides weekly writing prompts.  Maybe I could start with that...