My boyfriend and I love each other very much (dating 2 years)...but sometimes I wonder if he really appreciates the crap I have to do training to be a behavioral/clinical psychologist. I think he does a pretty good job for a geology major but here are some tips on how to date a medical student :)
1. Don't expect to see your S.O. Ever. Dates are few and hard to come by. I promise we really do try to fit you in.
2. Learn to hide your “ew, gross” reactions when we tell you all the stuff you never wanted to know about your bodily functions. For me currently, it's my excitement over the brains I'll be dissecting next semester. (I'm so excited)
3. Support us when we come home after each test, upset because we failed—and gently remind us about how much we studied, how smart we and after we get our passing grade how unnecessary the “I’m going to fail out of medical school and never become an MD” dramatics are. (I swear during finals and midterms I do this like everyday, and I apologize honey)
4. Each week we'll will have a new illness. Some will be extremely rare, others will be more mundane. Doesn’t matter. Each week I'll learn about a personality disorder and swear I have it, or think other people have it. Medical school can, and will, turn even the sanest person into a hypochondriac.
5. There will be weeks we'll forget about everything. I usually forget to eat and he'll have to remind me or bring me food. I love him for that. I've even forgotten about my own birthday once.
6. We'll make you hyper-aware that germs are everywhere and on everything. You know that water fountain on campus? YYeeaahh...about that.
7. Romantic date entails of a movie and dinner, rarely. Or him ordering chinese or pizza and us sitting together, talking about video games that I never get to play anymore, while I study.
8. Our study habits will make you feel like a complete slacker. For us, hitting the books 8-to-10 hours a day is not uncommon. I usually study at least 5 hours a day (to just pass). You'll wonder how you ever managed to pass school on your meager one hour of studying per night. And I apologize personally, for making other people feel like slackers or thinking you're a slacker because of this. It's just normal to me.
9. We're expected to know everything. Everything! The name of the 7 million-lettered, Latin sounding disorder, the technical term for one rare disease only found in certain countries. But ask us why your knee is swollen, or what you should do to tame cough, or if you have simple depression, and we won't have a clue or we'll give you 1,000 reasons what it could be.
10. You'll need friends with unending patience who pretend never to get sick of listening to your endless venting and complaints. Or, you'll need to pay a therapist who will pretend never to get sick of listening to your endless venting and complaints.
But take this all with a grain of salt, please. We love you very much anyway and appreciate what you do :)
