I'm So Excited...

Two possible continuations of the above phrase are "and I just can't hide it" or "I'm so...scared." The former is from an 80s(?) song, the latter comes from Saved By The Bell's Jessie Spano. All of the above apply to how I feel right about now, one week before moving up to Chicago. The excited part is especially true. As for being able to hide the excitement, I can probably do that. And as for being scared, I think anxious is a more accurate description. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. Anxious since UIC is all new to me and since med school starts in a few weeks. I hear things can get kinda rough. Ah well though, I'm still really looking forward to everything.

Having said all that, this is probably the most excited I've been about anything in a while. I've always wanted to head back to Chicago since moving away way back when. There's just something about it that I've always been drawn to. I'll be pretty close to two L lines and three major highways, so that should let me get around easily enough. As for my immediate area, I'm only a 15 minute walk from the med school and Cook County Hospital. Plus my neighborhood is reasonably quiet and safe with its share of local restaurants and bars. On top of heading to Chicago, I actually get to go to med school, so I'm kinda excited(?) about that too. Moreso about eventually becoming a doctor than the process. Even so, I can do some of my rotations at Cook County Hospital, from which the show ER is based on. As someone who's thinking about emergency medicine, CCH's ER isn't a bad place to rotate through. When I'm not at CCH, UIC has an insane number of hospitals in Chicagoland to rotate through, each being known for a specialty or patient demographic more than others. Sooo, this whole situation works out pretty well for me :)

The only thing that's kinda weird is that I'm going from a school of ~30,000 undergrads to one of about 700 med students. And that's at one of the larger med schools in the country. I hear it can be like high school again with each class numbering only around 175...not unlike like my high school. But, orientation week has some social events which should help to let everyone get to know each other. So far, I know of a Cubs game and a bar outing. Last year, I think there was a cruise on Lake Michigan, so that'd be pretty sweet if that happened this year. It's kinda like a first day of school feeling again, except the kids are a lot older and will probably get drunk together.

So overall: excited. About everything. Chicago, med school, meeting new people, the whole shebang. :D Now if my stuff could just pack and move itself...