Priorities

The annual meeting of the Association of Medicine and Psychiatry (AMP) is being held in Chicago this weekend. This meeting is an excellent opportunity for medical students to network with dually-trained physicians and program directors, current med/psych residents, as well as the handful of other medical students applying to combined training programs. I had been looking forward to this meeting ever since I discovered med/psych earlier this year, but it unfortunately falls on the same weekend as my grandmother's 91st birthday.

The decision wasn't difficult, to skip the meeting and celebrate my grandmother's birthday. How many birthdays and other big family events have I already missed because of medical school, and how many more will I miss during residency? I am still disappointed to forgo all the networking opportunities, especially heading into interview season. But the program director at Davis offered me some reassurance when I told him why I couldn't attend: "There will be meetings every year. Go spend time with your family."