Orienting the class of 2014

Orientation Week for the first-year medical students happened this past week. I had so much fun during orientation week last year (particularly at the retreat) that I decided to volunteer the last week of my last free Summer to help out as an orientation leader. This consisted mostly of herding the first-years from one place to the next and making sure that no one got lost or swallowed by a whale or something else equally as frightening. I was also there to answer whatever questions they threw at me and to otherwise calm them that medical school really isn't all that bad. It was a completely different experience for me than last year, when I was the one awash in anxiety of the Unknown.

As with last year, the two-day orientation retreat in the mountains was a ton of fun. For me, the highlights of the retreat were the team-building games, hiking in the mountains with a group of first-years, and the party that the orientation leaders threw for the first-years. I don't know when else I would have had the opportunity to get to know the class below me so well. Especially because it's so easy to become myopic in my own medical education, I feel that it was very important to meet my future colleagues.

They're a great group. I'm every bit impressed by them as by my own class, which speaks to what a great job the Admissions committee has done.