That paler side of leaves

Here, this week, leaves all around me are turning over. That duller underside is maybe something special, but less pretty and harder to like. School. Once again, I am passing my days (oh, such long, long days) in a lecture hall. Two weeks ago I could barely catch my breath as I watched the end of summer, my last summer off ever in my life, whiz by at acela express train speed. The thing about school is that I know it is good. And there are lovely friends around me, who make it really quite easy to slide back in and feel right about the world.

Rolling down the last hill into the Sharon train station each morning last week on my bicycle did wonders for spirits. So did that first sip of coffee from my most perfect travel mug. And lunch with friends in the grass of the quad. (Question for the group: What is your favorite part of medical school? Easily agreed upon answer: Recess!)

I think that it is just good to feel grounded. To have plans and routine. I am, as they say, on top of things. That is about the newest leaf I could ask for. Being not super stressed is a priority for me in medical school. Not least of all because stress wrecks havoc on my ability to interact usefully with the important folk in my life, and being mean to Lion is not on the list of "things that are OK." Last year my approach to being stress-minimal was to not worry about things very much re: school. I'm going to say that I squeezed by just fine with that attitude. My Pass/fail classes were passed and I managed to "bring it" for the ones I considered most important. But I'm not sure that I can approach the coming year with the same surfer dude type approach. So I am turning over that leaf to it's matte green underbelly. Dull, but satisfying.